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Identifying the Stake Holders
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Primary Stake-Holders:
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Cooks: Primary users of the system are people who have a kitchen with food in it and want to prepare a meal using only that food.
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Tertiary Stake-Holders:
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Moochers: Some potential terriary users are the people who eat the food suggested. If the primary user is a parent or room-mate then the food suggested might be eaten by people other than the preparer.
Food Producers/Distributers: It is possible that food producers will be impacted by the application. As the site suggests simple substitutions people might be less inclined to keep foods with a narrow use in the house. People will find they get more use our of foods that are usefull in many recipies. Changing the buying habits of customers will inevitably impact the people who sell and produce the food.
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User Needs
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Primary Needs:
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The main requirement of the primary user is to find a recipe that they can make with what they already have in their kitchen. The user will want a recipe that they are skilled enough to make and that tastes good to them and any people they are making the food for. They will want to be able to stipulate how maney people they are
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Tertiary Needs:
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People eating the food besides the food preparer will be primarily interested in the taste of the food.
Food producers and distributers will want to focus marketing of foods that are usefull in a wide range of recipes.
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User Requirements
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A preliminary investigation of the mandate of this project suggests the following user requirements:
The First:
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Users will be cooking at home for 1-4 people, possibly up to 10 if they have guests arriving.
Rationale: Commercial cooks will be less likely to require a 'last minute' suggestion since they have their recipes and budget pre-approved. They will also have existing resources such as industrial cookbooks.
Fit Criterion: The website's input parameters should be formatted for home use, for example list items such as onions in single units "4 onions" rather than in industrial units such as "4 lb. onions". Recipes should be geared towards home use in appropriate serving units. Recipes should be able to be selected by speed of preparation, spiciness, and dietary restraints to satisfy all family members. It is safe to assume that some common condiments will be available, even if the user forgets to enter them on the ingredients screen.
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The Second:
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Users will be of average cooking skill.
Rationale: Highly skilled restaurant cooks will have their own ideas for recipes, and will be more likely to simply go out and buy extra food fresh from the grocery to make their meal of choice rather than compromise to what they have in the house.
Fit Criterion: The website will indicate the skill requirement of each recipe and include it in the searchable criterion, to allow users who are not confident in their abilities to choose an appropriate recipe. Priority of recipes included in the database will be biased towards those that do not require excessive skill. The database will be able to recommend intelligent substitution of ingredients, i.e. butter for shortening.
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The Third:
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Users will be capable of transacting simple business over a web interface
Rationale: Since this product will be launched as a web site, we can assume that the users are capable of navigating and browsing through websites. In the year 2005 this is a reasonable assumption.
Fit Criterion: The website will be constructed with generally-accepted web conventions such as hyperlinks, drop down lists, check boxes, and will require only a low-security identification system (such as a saved cookie username/password) to save user sessions.
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The Fourth:
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Users will be English speaking in North America
Rationale: For the website's first stage, we will target the North American English-speaking market. Translating recipes between languages entails a large amount of expensive labour, and having input options for the vast range of ingredients available to Asian and East Asian cooking styles would be difficult to integrate. These features can be implemented as upgrade expansions following the successful launch of the website.
Fit Criterion: The service will be available in English, with recipes similar to those in the best-selling North American cookbooks. Units will default to North American customary, with other options available in submenus.
Profiles
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Fred:
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Fred is a bachelor and lives 20km outside a major metropolitan area. He has custody of his two kids every second week, and wants to break from his habit of ordering chinese food and pizza to feed them. He is not a very good cook and his kids are picky eaters. If he doesn't do his shopping on the way to pick the kids up at school he will have to bring them to the grocery store with him so getting last minute ingredients to complete a recipe is very difficult. He works in an industrial supply store and is familiar with using computers for work and for internet personal classifieds.
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Heidi:
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Heidi is a college student and lives with a housemate who she doesn't talk to much. She's only interested in making single servings to feed herself and isn't too picky about what she eats so long as it is vegetarian and will microwave well the next day. She may not be a very experienced cook, but is willing to try new things. She uses a computer everyday for everything and welcomes not needing cookbooks in the kitchen.
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Francine:
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Francine is comfortable with her full time occupation of managing a household for her family of four, but dreads the day when her husband brings home unexpected company for dinner. She uses the internet for simple things like checking her email, reading funny links her friends send her, and checking the activities schedule at the local Rec center. She has a well stocked fridge and cellar and a bookshelf of cookbooks, but hasn't read most of them.