Designing a Software Application to Implement the Provisions of a New Tax Regulation: A Collaborative Project for CIS and Taxation Students Janet Helwig – Dominican University Coauthors: Steve Harrington and Anne Drougas

10/7/2005ISECON Project concept follows from …  Dominican U’s School of Business mission, which states that the successful student should be able to: Communicate effectively in written & verbal formats Communicate effectively in written & verbal formats Utilize quantitative and analytical methods as well as critical thinking skills in business applications Utilize quantitative and analytical methods as well as critical thinking skills in business applications Utilize technology to address business applications Utilize technology to address business applications

10/7/2005ISECON More Motivation  Desire to have Systems Analysis & Design class work on a real project with a real user CIS students learn the people side of Information Systems development CIS students learn the people side of Information Systems development Systems development process becomes clearer when experienced Systems development process becomes clearer when experienced Employers want students with communication skills, teamwork skills, and real life project experience Employers want students with communication skills, teamwork skills, and real life project experience

10/7/2005ISECON Collaborative Ideas Based on willingness of other teachers to have their students participate on a project with CIS students. Examples:  Income tax regulations – tax  Financial planning projection model – business statistics  Real estate buy-rent forecast - finance  Currency exchange derivative models - derivatives

10/7/2005ISECON The Regulation – Publication 600  New tax code provision in 2004  Allows taxpayers who itemize to deduct state and local sales taxes rather than state and local income taxes  Project is to develop software to calculate appropriate deduction based on taxpayer inputs and government tables

10/7/2005ISECON Complexities of the Regulation  multiple taxpayer residences  the effect of various local general sales tax rates  state and local general sales taxes paid on items specified through Publication 600  states without state sales tax

10/7/2005ISECON Project Design  Pair a CIS student with a taxation student. Taxation student acts as content expert. CIS student acts as systems analyst and systems developer.  Facilitate meetings of the student teams to Analyze how the deduction is calculated Analyze how the deduction is calculated Design the user interface Design the user interface

10/7/2005ISECON CIS student responsibilities  Interviewing taxation student to determine how deduction is calculated  Programming and testing the solution

10/7/2005ISECON Taxation student responsibilities  Developing initial taxpayer cases to present how calculation is determined in various cases.  Performing user testing to verify system works correctly and to specifications

10/7/2005ISECON Presentation of Student Solutions  Gives student teams a presentation experience, good for working on communication skills  Allows students to see how others solved the problem, and to witness the variety of designs  Gives students more impetus to do a good job and to get it done on time

10/7/2005ISECON Other Ideas for improving the learning  Have students keep a journal of all team meetings  Have a roundtable discussion with students to evaluate the methodologies used by the various student teams What worked and what didn’t What worked and what didn’t What they learned What they learned

10/7/2005ISECON Assessing Student Solutions Based on:  program accuracy when running the common test plan  sensibility of the user interface and design  robustness in areas such as error handling and data validation  Effectiveness of communication and teamwork

10/7/2005ISECON An Interface Using VB.Net

10/7/2005ISECON State Residency Specification

10/7/2005ISECON Publication 600 specified items and State and local income taxes

10/7/2005ISECON Maximum deduction amount

10/7/2005ISECON System Test Cases  Developed to reflect a range of possible taxpayer scenarios

10/7/2005ISECON Resources for interested teachers  Publication 600 project resources: Optional state sales tax table text files Optional state sales tax table text files State tax files State tax files Sample solutions in VB.Net and C++ Sample solutions in VB.Net and C++ Systems test cases (Excel spreadsheet) Systems test cases (Excel spreadsheet) Are available at:

10/7/2005ISECON Questions??? Contact Janet Helwig at