Developing a business simulation game: integrating multiple development tools

Introduction System development in the early twenty first century is a complicated task. Many technologies make up the development and operating environment. Mixtures of procedural and object oriented coding tools, and complex network, operating systems and World Wide Web applications make up this environment. It is most unusual that a complex system can be constructed with a single development tool and operate in a single production environment. Multiple tools and systems from multiple vendors generally are needed and used in practice (Beckham, 1991; Mahnke & Steiert, 2001; Shin & Wang, 2004). This paper discusses the development of one such system--ServeSim. The system is a business simulation game for the service industry based on the business behaviours of the hotel industry. It was commissioned by a client for use in its industry training program. The system was developed using the Borland Delphi 6 programming tool, Borland Paradox database, Microsoft Excel 2000 spreadsheet, Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), and the InstallShield Express installation tool. The system operates under the Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system in an IBM compatible PC environment. Details of the Business Simulation The ServeSim simulation was designed around the hospitality industry using a service quality framework. The simulation revolves around a number of key service management issues. These include: service strategy development, service quality, environmental analysis, the ability to integrate the various functional areas involved in senior level decision making and the role of leadership and team development in executive decision making. Participants play the role of the executive management group, and develop and implement an overall strategy for one of the competing organizations. The success of this strategy depends on the participants' ability to think strategically and to contend with the slings and arrows of external environmental influences, including competitor strategy. As each round of decision-making goes by, the outcomes of the teams judgment becomes evident in terms of both the performance of their organization and on their personal equanimity. Success depends on a number of factors including wise decisions by the team, as well as environmental factors and the serendipitous poor choices that might be made by the team's competitors. All teams start from an identical position and will compete over several rounds of decision-making where each decision period equates to three months. The key objective of the simulation is for participants to gain a thorough understanding of what drives success in terms of provision of services in the private sector--although many of these learnings will also be relevant to an increasingly market driven public sector. One of the things this simulation looks for is the overall strategy that participants adopt for their companies and how they go about implementing that strategy. There are both 'hard' measures for success such as: * Profitability * Occupancy As well as 'soft' measures such as: * Observation of team dynamics * Problem solving As indicated earlier, in the simulation, teams of individuals form companies, which they then manage. A company faces a competitive environment in which other firms (up to six firms in the industry) operate similarly. All of this high-pressure activity takes place in a simulated world, with most of the attention focused on the island of Luann, a beautiful semi tropical landmass with three distinct regions. Situated on the island are up to 12 resorts (depending on the number of teams competing), with half in Region One and the other half in Region Two. The resorts in both of these regions are clustered quite closely together with common walkways. At the start of the simulation all of the resorts are identical. …