Assignment #1

ISM 4212 - Fall 2001

Brief Project Description:

America is an urban nation; approximately 80% of the nation's population lives in urban area. As U.S. cities grow in size and population, the need for an effective urban infrastructure management system is becoming increasingly urgent. The city of Houston initiated a project to design a comprehensive infrastructure decision support system to help streamline the decision-making regarding urban infrastructure investments. Various stakeholders are involved in providing, managing and using infrastructure investments. They range from citizens, businesses, and the public in general who use the services, to the mayor and city council, which makes the final decision, and city departments such as public works, that plan, design and maintain the infrastructure. Also involved are contractors and developers that build the infrastructure, and numerous other city, county, state and federal agencies that regulate, provide funds, or somehow affect infrastructure decision making. 

Data Collection: The data for this project was collected using semi-structured interviews. Questionnaires reflecting the multiple perspective views were developed to guide the interviews. Five interview guides were created to suit the different groups of stakeholders: Elected officials, Contractors/developers, Neighborhood associations/citizens and reporters/media. Approximately 100 interviews are planned and 37 have been conducted to date, plus some 20 other informal interviews to collect specific data files and follow up on formal interviews. 

Assignment:

1.Download the SidewalkInterview.pdf 
2.Read the interview and name all the different processes described or listed by the interviewee. 
3.One of the processes described is called sidewalk-CIP, your assignment is to draw a class diagram for this process:

Identify all the object classes. 
Identify the attributes (these are not described in the interview, use your own judgement of the attributes that might be associated with its object.) 
Name some methods that might be related to the objects.

CIP- Capital Improvement Project: These are all major high dollar projects; as opposed to maintenance projects.

For more information about the city of Houston, you can visit the Web site at http://www.ci.houston.tx.us/