THIS IS NOW FILLED - Thank you to those whoe responded
My usual PHP programmer called me today and explained he had taken too much work on and was unable to get a project done for me - He’s usually really good and we’ve always had a good relationship - I guess he just bit of a bit more than he can chew. He was not offering a MODx solution but as this project is now urgent and I just built the rest of my client’s web site in MODx I wondered if anyone was available to do this project.
We’re talking about a restaurant owner with 3 outlets who needs a system for keeping track of meals that people have ordered in advance (mainly group bookings) - especially over the Christmas period. So this isn’t really about who is on what table as the staff will take care of which table they are on - it is more about the ability to take pre orders for the food.
Here’s the main brief:
Table booking
Admin area
Head office can assign restaurants and managers (so you can add new restaurants to the plan or add/delete managers as they come and go).
Restaurant Managers can book customers in. Restaurant staff can view bookings but not change.
Head office can view all bookings and make changes.
Story board (how it should work).
Mr Jones rings up and says "can I have a table for 6 on dec 2nd at 7.45pm"
Restaurant manager would preferably be already logged in to system - clicks on date on calendar and checks times and tables already booked.
Manager - "yes sir - that is available, we can provisionally book it for you now and we will send you a link to your (Christmas) menu. You can pass the link on to your fellow diners and you can all fill this in online. Your booking will be confirmed as soon as we receive your deposit which must reach us within 2 weeks. You can alter your menu choices up to 2 weeks before you dine."
When deposit is received manager logs in and changes booking to confirmed.
Christmas/(Advance booking) menu
Admin Area
Head office can create menus for each restaurant with multiple menu availability.
Online customers can access menu (as assigned to customer as a log in) of a given restaurant and enter information on a spreadsheet. Information must be entered 2 weeks prior to dining.
Restaurant managers can view and alter customer booking.
Restaurant staff can view (not alter) menus and can print out schedule of food for chef and entire sheet for front of house.
END
Please get in touch if you are able to do this
Glad you got help. I wanted to complement you on the great set of specs. It should serve as an example for others wanting help on a project.
I need more sleep.
It popped up in unread posts and I didn’t look at the date. My compliment stands, though. I’ve never had a client make that clear a request -- not even close.
Yes I agree, its well done.
You know -- there is a market for people (consultants) who can help clients organize their specs, before bidding out the job.
Elance, Guru, etc. are full of messy job descriptions. Whats worse I think is when clients put something vague and unusable in the title. They simply say "Business Plan" "Need Website" etc. with no way for us to tell what more is really being asked for.
Kind of a middleman yes -- but it is a special talent to take client’s disorganized thoughts and put them into usable language or a checklist format. The storyboarding model is a really nice way to do that.
