Capsim - Business Simulation Experience

Capsim Management Simulations is a global leader in developing and delivering business simulations that prepare practicing and aspiring business people to run profitable businesses. Each simulation teaches business Fundamentals including Teamwork, Leadership, Strategy, Tactics. The simulations show participants how to put the pieces together.  They use what they’ve learned as the basis for the real objective – learning to run a business.

The purpose of the website is to let their clients the professors, students, business associates provide a platform for teaching the business simulations that they offer for management professionals.

Participants must coordinate decisions across four primary functional areas:

• Research & Development
• Marketing
• Production
• Finance

Objective

The client is global leader in developing and delivering business simulations that prepare practicing and aspiring business people to run profitable businesses at Chicago, Illinois USA. Their  programs create rich learning experiences that give participants, whether in an academic or corporate setting, the opportunity to practice the skills and build the business acumen that are behind today’s successful companies..

The website deals with management simulation. The student has to play 8 rounds and need to analyze the performance in each round. They have to manage a company selling products in different consumer segment.

Benefits

• Professors can create courses with different settings for their student groups
• Students can take part in the business simulations of a course and also do exams
• Professor can evaluate the students and suggest corrective steps and insight into running a business firm.

Challenges

Games simulation is implemented in excel sheet. Then it is developed in web application. So each round, to be played in Web application is compared with Excel sheet. Comparison testing is a major criterion in this project. A new test approach is developed for the entire testing.

Solution

Developments of many modules are done in Cold Fusion, Flex and Java.  Games that are developed in Excel were created in web application using Flex. For maintaining portability, many parts of the simulation were also developed in Java. Fixed many bugs reported.

Technology Specifications

• OS: Windows
• Application Server: Cold Fusion 8
  
• Programming Language: Cold Fusion
• Database: Ms SQL 2008
• Development Tool: Dreamweaver, Flex Builder
• Project Management Tool: Gantt Chart, Base Camp, Acrobat Connect Pro, GoTo meeting
• Bug Tracking Tool: Bugzilla
• Automation Tool: Selenium IDE

Main features of the system are specified below:

Students
Students play business simulations under a professor. They can either belong to small groups within a normal class or also can play as a single individual in a competing mode.

Courses
Professor can create courses and assign a Foundation or Capstone simulation for a student group to play. He can schedule the rounds of it and can process when the inputs from students are received.

Exams
Students after completing the course can appear for exam. It is an assessment tool to determine and demonstrate what they have learned though the business simulations.