Soma Supermarket analysis

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Soma Supermarket

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Introduction

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) comprises computers, the Internet, and electronic transfer systems like radios, televisions, and projectors among others, and is commonly used in today’s global sector. The use of technology has become dynamic in the current world. The growth of globalization has brought a huge effect to the world of technology. This is an aspect that is making many companies go global as this is an aspect that is widely being used as a channel for attracting and reaching people. New technological methods and devices have been implemented an aspect that has led to the development of businesses. The growth of technology is an aspect that all surviving, growing, and established firms should have and implement. The following introduction relates to soma supermarket, which is also trying to go global. They are sellers of high quality groceries. This project is about the development of a website, which soma supermarket wishes to use as a way of establishing and reaching its customers worldwide.

Methodology analysis

Introduction

There have been many methods of analyzing methodology used today in many researches. An example of such methodology includes the agile methodology. This methodology is not a set of tools, but a philosophy set on paper in 2001 containing about 17 signatories. Currently, about 41% of development projects have currently adopted the use of agile methodology. The use of this methodology is applied to business as a way of eliminating and responding to unpredictability. Agile methodology is a group of methods regarding software development based on incremental and iterative development, where solutions and requirements evolve through collaboration among cross-functional, self-organizing teams (Auer, 2007). This methodology promotes evolutionary development and delivery, adaptive planning, encourages a flexible and rapid response to change, and a time-boxed iterative approach. This denotes a conceptual framework, which endorses foreseen tight iteration during the development cycle.

There are two main applied methodologies that fall under the philosophy of agile, which are XP and Scrum. These two methodologies differ in details, but share the aspect of iterative. XP denotes extreme programming. This methodology contemplates on the development instead of the managerial aspect regarding the software projects. XP was created so that firms would be free to accept all or part regarding the methodology. XP begins with the release of a planning phase, where each concludes with the user acceptance testing. If a product offers features that fulfill the needs of the user, the group terminates iteration and issues the software. Scrum is the other methodology that falls between agile methodologies (Ed, K. A. I. M. 2013). Scrum is used a term that denotes a clustered mass of players involved respectively to get a job done. Scrum in software development arise from the rapid prototyping community, as prototypers required a methodology, which could support an environment where the necessities were not only unfinished at the beginning, but could also be changed rapidly throughout the development. In contrast to Xp, scrum involves both developmental and managerial processes.

The use of agile methodology since its introduction in 2001, with all its principles, values, tools, methods, practitioners and champions, cultures and philosophies, has greatly changed the landscape associated with modern engineering and the development of commercial software in the internet era. Agile methodology came from the critique that Dr. Winston Royce presented in a paper that was entitled the large software system management development, which was criticizing sequential development. Royce stated that the development of a software should not be done like the development of an automobile in an assembly line where each piece is done in sequential phase (Holcombe, 2008). In sequential phases, each phase has to be completed before the other is started. Dr. Royce suggested against the phase based method where developers have to first get all the requirements then complete its design and architecture, then write the codes and so on. Royce mainly objected to this method due to the lack of communication among the specialized group that finishes every phase of work (Highsmith, 2002).

The waterfall methodology is far from enhanced compared to agile methodology an aspect that makes it’s easy to see. First and foremost, it adopts that every prerequisite regarding the project can be seen before any design or coding happens. This is an aspect that has seen many developers take time to develop software, which has also cost a lot of money, but still it provides no benefit to anyone. There are various reasons why agile methodology is being rapidly adopted (Kung, 2013). One of the main reasons that make agile methodology accepted is the fact that it offers opportunities to evaluate the direction of a project during the development lifecycle. This is attained by regular cadences of work, identified as iterations or sprints, at the end where teams need to present a possibly shippable product increment.

As a way of focusing on the repetition of the abbreviated works cycle and the functional product they produce, agile methodology is termed as incremental or iterative. In waterfall development groups only have a single chance to get every aspect of the project right. Compared to the waterfall methodology, agile methodology is better as in each phase of the development, design and requirements is frequently revisited during the lifecycle (Layton, 2012). If a team stops and re-evaluates the way of a project after two weeks, there is continually time to steer the project to another direction. The outcomes regarding the inspect and adapt method towards development significantly reduces both the development expenses and time to the market. Since teams can design software at similar times they are gathering requirements, the occurrence termed as analysis paralysis is less probable to hinder a team from creating progress (XP 2007, & Concas, 2007).

Since a team’s work sequence is limited to two weeks, it offers stakeholders recurring chances to calibrate releases regarding success in the actual world. The use of agile development methodology aids firms in building the right product. Instead of obligating to market a part of the software that is not even written yet, agile allows teams to constantly re-plan their issue to optimize its value during the development, enhancing them to be as economical as possible at the marketplace. The use of agile methodology development conserves a product’s vital market relevance and enhances a group’s work does not end up on a shelf, never unconfined (Stamelos, & Sfetsos, 2007).

SWOT Analysis

The SWOT analysis is an analysis which businesses should consider. This analysis is all about understanding the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This strategy leads the company to think on key issues (Bensoussan, & Fleisher, 2008). Soma supermarket should aim to turn its weaknesses to strengths and its threats to opportunities. Strengths and weaknesses affect the company internally while threats and opportunities affect the company externally. The SWOT analysis is carried out to measure and evaluate a place, product, or industry. This involves outlining the objective of the business project or venture and the identification of external and internal factors that are unfavorable or favorable to attain that objective.

This analysis is accredited to Albert Humphrey, who steered a conference at the Stanford Research Institute in the 1960’s and 70’s while applying the use of data obtained from Fortune 500 companies. The notch to which the internal atmosphere of the organization matches with the external environment is outlined by the aspect of strategic fit. Setting the objective needs to be applied after the SWOT analysis has been undertaken (United States. 2008). This could allow attainable objectives or goals be set for the firm. The S in the analysis denotes strength, which refer to the characteristics that the project or business has to offer it an advantage over the others. The W denotes weaknesses, which are characteristics that put the organization or firm at a disadvantage in regards to the others. The O denotes opportunities, which are the aspects that the business or firm could apply to its advantage. The T denotes threats, which are aspects in the environment, which could lead to trouble for the firm or business (Fine, 2009).

Documentation of the SWOT analysis is significant as it can offer later steps necessary to planning in regards to the achievement of the objective. First and foremost, decision makers need to deliberate if the objective is achievable, given the SWOT’s. If the goal is not achievable, then a different goal needs to be selected and the process repeated. Handlers of the SWOT analysis needs to enquire and answer questions, which lead to meaningful information for every category of strength, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats, as a way of making the analysis helpful in order to gain the competitive advantage. Soma supermarket has its SWOT analysis as follows.

There are strengths that Soma supermarket has. These include the aspect that it has its base is well laid down and have the best customer base. The aspect that it is able to deliver the best groceries and has different branches is an advantage. The aspect that soma supermarket is able to offer the best groceries as compared to its competitors as it has customers from different places. This is an aspect that indicates that the introduction of the website will only make it stronger as compared to its customers. This is an aspect that also indicates that it has a strong customer base and despite the distance, it is able to offer the best services and products as compared to its customers. The aspect of implementing a website will increase the strengths of this supermarket as it will be able to get hold of its potential customers an aspect that will make it increase its market share.

There are various weaknesses that are associated with soma supermarket. These include the aspect that it does not have a better internet connection provider. This is an aspect that could also make it hold onto to a weak connection provider thus leading to losses after sales. An established internet platform could enhance the sales of a company. The other weakness associated with this supermarket is the aspect of distance. The aspect that it has not based its outlets in many places, could make it vulnerable to customers despite it having a better supply base, but the distance that customers need to travel from one place to another is an aspect that could deprive off its customers. The aspect of introducing a website will serve as a bridge to connect people and people from far will be able to get their fresh and good groceries from this supermarket an aspect that is going to minimize the weaknesses. There are various opportunities that Soma supermarket entails. These opportunities include the introduction of internet and website.

The use of internet and website is a very important aspect as it makes it possible for a company to advertise its product to different people using a lower cost. The use of a website by soma supermarket is an aspect with will open its customer base. The growth of technology has inspired companies to move forward in the sales. The use of internet exposes many people to different products at a lower cost. The aspect of soma supermarket to use a website will make its customers to access the groceries they want, thus are also able to attain them at a reduced time interval. There are various threats that affect this supermarket. The aspect of it selling perishable goods via the website is an aspect that is not fair. These products have a shorter time span of freshness, thus this would lead to many perishing if there is a problem with arising from the internet provider. The other threat is the aspect that there is competition from established supermarkets, which use huge internet platforms like Amazon. This is an aspect that may offer competition before it gains customers.

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MoSCoW Analysis

This technique is also referred to as MoSCoW method, or MoSCoW prioritization. This is a technique applied in business analysis, management, and software development as a way of reaching to a common consideration with stakeholders regarding the significance they offer to the delivery of every requirement. The M or must denotes the requirement, which needs to be satisfied in the concluding solution for the explanation to be assumed a success. The S or should denotes a high-priority element, which should be involved in the solution if it can be probable. This is, however, a vital element, but one that can be fulfilled in other methods if strictly necessary. The C or could denotes the requirement, that needs to be deliberated as desirable but not essential. This will be involved if resources and time permit. The W or won’t denotes a requirement, which stakeholders have settled will not be executed in a given issue, but could be considered to be preserved for future use. The o’s in the analysis are only applied as a way of ensuring that the word gets pronunciation (Zorc, et al 2012).

MoSCoW is a technique that is mainly used with time boxing. This is where deadlines are fixed so that the attention can be on the most significant requirements, and as such, is viewed as a vital aspect involving software development procedures, rapid application development like dynamic system development technique and the agile software development method. The use of this analysis is dependent on the importance of the requirements. All requirements are significant, but they are arranged to offer the greatest and most gradual firm business early. Developers will first try to offer all the M, S, and C necessities, but the S and C requirements needs to be the first to leave if the offer timescale looks threatened. The plain English explanation of MOSCOW has value in making customers understand what they will do throughout the prioritization in a manner that the others methods of attracting priority, for example, high, low, and medium, never do (Fine, 2009).

The must have requirements written as MUST are very vital for the success of the project and have to be involved in the current delivery time box so that it can be a success. If even one of the MUST condition is not involved in the project, the delivery of the project is taken to be a failure. It’s good to understand that all conditions can be downgraded from MUST, after agreement with all appropriate stakeholders, for example, if new conditions are taken to be more important. MUST should be taken as a acronym assuming the Minimum Usable SubseT (Bensoussan, & Fleisher, 2008). The should have conditions are also significant to the success of a project, but are not that essential in regards to the delivery of the current deliverance time box. SHOULD conditions are as significant as MUST although SHOULD conditions are mainly not as time-critical or have workarounds, giving them another method of satisfying the conditions, so can caught back until a future deliverance time box. The COULD have conditions denoted as COULD are less vital and mainly seen as nice to have. More easily satisfied COULD conditions in a delivery may increase customer satisfaction for fewer development costs. The WON’T have conditions are mainly the least vital, lowest-payback goods, or not good at the moment. As a result, WON’T conditions are not planned for schedule for the delivery of the time box. WON’T conditions are reconsidered or dropped for inclusion to the later time boxes. This, however, does not guarantee them less significant.

Soma supermarket needs to also follow the MOSCOW analysis. There are the MUST have that this supermarket has to promote. The use of an established website promoter like Amazon is very important. This supermarket should understand this platform is accessed by many people and being the leading website advertisers, its products are likely to be accessed by many people. The stakeholders of this supermarket should also ensure that they produce and offer better website application, which will not be that costly. This is a must have that the company needs to ensure since it will be able to access many people. This supermarket should also ensure that it has closer branches to all the people as a way of making it accessible to the people. The use of website is not the only way where the supermarket can attract people, but having outlets closer to the people is an aspect that will make people access the groceries sooner as waiting for delivery can take long for those far away. Inputting a website into the current system of soma supermarket success as it has more customers and is known for the sale of better groceries, would make it a success and will increase a customer base. This supermarket should also ensure that it also incorporates the aspect of delivery to its customers, who may be living some distances away and want their items delivered.

This project relates to my project as there are various issues that the supermarket hopes to have, but may not be necessary to achieve them currently. This is an aspect that is going to make the shareholders come together to find a solution to what they really want implemented. This is an aspect that was also steered by the fact that the use of this analysis goes on well with the agile methodology used in the creation of my website. There are various advantages associated with the use of MOSCOW technique. Some of these benefits include the aspect that it helps the business in the provision of flexibility if some things show they are taking longer than expected. This is an aspect that makes it possible for the firm and project to gain contingency. This makes it possible for the firm to prioritize on the required requirements to ensure that the project runs smoothly and as per the requirements of the stakeholders. The use of the MOSCOW analysis is also said to be beneficial as it helps firms and teams in the prioritization of goals.

Porter’s five force analysis

Porter’s five forces, is a technique used for business strategy development and industry analysis. This analysis draws upon the industrial organization economics as a way of deriving five forces, which determine the competitive force and, however, the attractiveness of the market. The attractiveness of a market in this aspect denotes the overall profitability of the industry. An unattractive industry denotes the industry which the combination of these five forces makes it to drive down the whole profitability (Chen, Copenhagen Business School. CBS., & Danmark. (2010). A very unattractive firm could be the one approaching pure competition, thus available profits for all businesses are led to normal profits. This analysis is attributed to its developer called Michael E Porter. Three of these forces, denotes external issues, while the rest two denotes internal factors.

Porter called these factors as the micro environment, in contrast to the greater term macro environment. They comprise of forces, which are closer to a company, which affect its ability to supply its customers and make profit. Any change occurring in these forces mainly requires a firm to re-assess the market place as the whole change in the industry information. The whole firm attractiveness does not mean that every company in the industry will give similar profitability. Firms are capable of applying their business model, core competencies, or network to attain a profit higher that the industry average. A concise example of this includes the airline industry. Like an industry, profitability is down and yet individual companies, by using unique business models, are able to gain a return in excess in regards to the industry average.

The five forces as stated by porter are three forces arising from horizontal competition and they are the threat of substitute services or products, threat of reputable rivals, and the threat of new entrants and the other two forces, which arise as a result of vertical competition include suppliers bargaining power, and customers bargaining power. This analysis of five forces is just a part of the whole porter strategic models. The more elements include generic strategies, and the value chain. The development of these forces was as a result of his reaction towards the SWOT analysis, which he saw as an ad hoc, and un-rigorous. Porter’s five force technique is focused on the paradigm of structure conduct performance associated with industrial organizational economics. The use of this analysis has been used to a varied range of problems, from aiding businesses become extra profitable to aiding governments stabilize their industries. The following illustrates the force analysis.

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The explanation of the five forces is as follows:

The threat of fresh entrants

Profitable markets, which offer high returns, have to attract new and fresh firms. This could result in many fresh entrants, which will eventually decrease and lower the profitability for all companies in that industry. Not unless the entry of fresh firm be blocked by incumbents, the abnormal profit price will go to zero, thus making it a perfect competition. There are various factors, which can have effects to how much threat fresh entrants may pose like the existence of entry barriers. The most striking segment includes one where entry barriers are elevated and exit barriers are down. Few fresh firms can come in and non-performing firms can easily exit. The other factor is capital requirements, government policy, absolute costs, economies of scale, cost disadvantages sovereign of size, product differentiation, brand equity, economies of merchandise differences, expected retaliation, sunk costs or switching costs, customer loyalty to reputable brands, access to distribution, and industry profitability (Warner, 2010). Based on the aspect that soma supermarket has established itself, it’s able to clearly offer good groceries. If soma supermarket is an incumbent business, then it can be able to clearly outdo fresh entrants to the market. This supermarket should effectively make sure that it’s able to offer the best groceries at the best and competitive price to make sure that new entrants will not get a chance to lower their profits. To ensure that there is no perfect competition, and then the supermarket should ensure that it blocks the fresh entrants.

Threat of substitute services or products

The occurrence of products outside of the territory of the common product margins increases the tendency of customers to opt to other alternatives. For instance, tap water can be considered as a substitute to coke, while Pepsi is a competitor for the same product. Extensive marketing for drinking tap water could lower the pie for both Pepsi and coke, while extensive Pepsi advertising could probable increase the pie, albeit whereas offering Pepsi a bigger slice to coke’s expense. There are factors, which influence this analysis and they include buyer propensity to alternate, the relative fee performance of alternative, buyers switching costs, perceived level regarding product differentiation, number of alternatives products accessible in the market, substandard products, quality depreciation, and the substitution ease. Soma supermarket should ensure that it clearly understands the alternative products, which could see its profits go down. Based on the aspects that there are no many alternatives for groceries, this is an aspect that would not make customers find alternatives to groceries. The use of spices is not useful to health as they possess chemicals, which could cause dangerous diseases. This is an aspect that could make customers stick to groceries.

Bargaining force of customers in regards to buyers

The bargaining force of customers is also denoted as the markets of outputs. This is the capability of customers to put the company under pressure that also has an effect towards the sensitivity of the customer in regards to the changes in price. Industries can take actions as a way of reducing the buyer power like the implementation of a loyalty program. The customer power is great if the customer has many substitutes. The potential factors include the buyers concentration to the company’s concentration ratio, force down price, buyer information availability, buyer switching costs in regards to the company’s switching costs, the bargaining leverages, mainly in industries, which have high fixed costs, degree of reliance upon open distribution channels, availability of existing alternative products, differential advantage in regards to business products, the RFM analysis, and the whole amount of trading. Soma supermarket should ensure that its customers are its jewelry and to enhance maximum sales, a business has to understand the entire factors that shape consumer buying. Businesses have to understand these factors that are: psychological, personal, social and cultural. These factors lead to the success of a business and a consumer wishes that these needs are met by the product they use.

Psychological factors are those that influence the decision of a consumer to purchases. This factor is categorically divided to individual’s learning and beliefs, attitude, motivation and perception. Motivation is the urge that drives an individual to purchasing a product. Where motivation of an individual is high, then the need to buy the product is high. Consumer’s needs should be respected and any business that fulfills this pushes its sale higher. Perception is the state of selecting where consumer through experience tends to select what fits them. Learning is the process of acquiring information about something. Consumers tend to learn quite early about a product making decision about the product. Beliefs are the ways in which consumer view a particular product.

Purchasing of a product by a consumer is depended on various factors like social class, lifestyle, culture and psychological behavior. Purchasing of a product is characterized by the product. The product type affects the sale of a product. Regular purchased products do not need much consideration like those that will be used for long. The purchase of a product is dependent on age and status. Culture also plays a part in the purchase of a product. Different cultures have different views about a product thus this constitutes the purchasing power. Soma supermarket needs to ensure that it serves its customers with the best price in the market as it needs to clearly know the price that its competitors are selling so that it cannot lose them to their competitors.

Bargaining force of suppliers

The bargaining force associated with suppliers is also denoted as the market of inputs. Suppliers of components, raw materials, services, and labor to the company could be a source of power in regards to the company where there are minimal alternatives. There are various potential factors, which lead to this aspect and they include presence of alternative inputs, degree in regards to differentiation of inputs, supplier switching costs in relation to the company’s switching costs, strength of distribution medium, supplier concentration in regards to firm concentration ratio, employee solidarity, and supplier competition. Soma supermarket should ensure that it has different suppliers for the different groceries it produces as this will ensure that it does not have irregular prices posted to customers. This will also make it possible for suppliers to compete to offer the best products so that they can maintain their status. Soma supermarket should also understand the price that its competitors are supplied goods so that customers will not run away. Soma supermarket should make sure that it holds its supplier in the best way possible with a motive of retaining them and their customers as well.

Intensity regarding competitive rivalry

For many organizations and companies, the intensity regarding competitive rivalry is the main determinant regarding the competitiveness of the market. If there are many competitors, this will lead to the attractiveness of the market declining. The potential factors that leads to this effect is firm concentration ratio, degree of transparency, powerful competitive strategy, the degree of advertising expense, completion between offline and online companies, and the sustainable competitive advantage by innovation. Soma supermarket should ensure that it does enter into a business with many competitors as it will not gain profit. This supermarket should ensure that it understands all its competitors well and that it has the competitive prices. If the level of competition is high, then soma supermarket should upgrade its game. The supermarket should also ensure that it knows the competition addressed by those companies, who have not implemented the website aspect and also those which have a website platform.

Business requirements

Business requirements denote what needs to be delivered as a way of providing value. Systems, products, software, and processes are they methods of delivering, satisfying, and meeting the requirements of the business. This aspect arises in the context of designing or procuring other systems or software. People should remove the obsession that business requirements denote the objectives, but are the ways of achieving the objectives. In any software or system, the business requirements need to be commissioned by the stakeholders. In every business requirements, there are the functional and non-functional requirements. Functional requirements state what a software system needs to do, while non-functional requirements give constraints regarding how the system will do the said objective (Eylert, 2005). Some of the various functional requirements are business rules, authentication, external interfaces, authorization levels, administrative functions, certification requirements, audit tracking, transaction correction, cancellation and adjustments, historical data, and regulatory or legal requirements. The various non-functional requirements include compliance, effectiveness, efficiency, documentation, accessibility, capacity, forecast, and current, fault tolerance, privacy, scalability, robustness, quality, resilience, reliability, maintainability, extensibility, disaster recovery, scalability, stability, security, testability, supportability, and interoperability (Hay, 2003).

The proposed requirements of the system

Before the creation of any system, developers have to come to terms and visualize the design, the layout, and all the intended features that need to be incorporated. Additionally, developers have to clearly visualize how the user will interact with all the pages and the performance of the site like the proposed website of soma supermarket. It is very essential that the non-functional and functional requirements be identified. There are various functional requirements that this system or website should possess (Goldsmith, 2004). These requirements denote what the website will do, or its functions. Since functions are realized before the development of the system, functional requirements need to be written in future tense. In such a website, the functional requirements include the aspect that the website should be able to accept customer’s orders. The other requirements is that th

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