Programming Solution - McBride Financial Services

Programming Solution - McBride Financial Services

The Problem

McBride Financial Services is a start-up regional mortgage lender headquartered in Boise, Idaho. The firm specializes in conventional, FHA, and VA loans for home purchasing and refinancing. The company intends to expand its operations into Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota (McBride Financial Services, 2005). McBride’s mission statement reads “McBride Financial Services will be the preeminent provider of low cost mortgage services using state of the art technology in the five state area” (McBride Financial Services, 2005). According to the company’s Internet customer Web site, McBride’s wants its customers to receive “the most efficient and effective processing of mortgage applications from inception to closing” (McBride Financial Services, 2005). Part of the company’s business plan listed as critical success factors to its mission statement is an efficient, easy-to-use Web site for the application and processing of mortgage applications, and an upscale, friendly virtual environment for both its customers and employees (McBride Financial Services, 2005). Hugh McBride of McBride Financial Services and Abram LaBelle of Smith Systems Consulting have been discussing the technology requirements needed for McBride’s planned offices. An initial Requirements Interview between the two has been conducted. Among the many requirements discussed, Mr. McBride stated that

the plan is to have a company Web site that can be accessed either from the in-office kiosks or online that customers can use for self-service until they can be seen by one of the office brokers. This Web site will need to have access to the latest interest rates, financial calculators and other information that a person applying for a home mortgage might be interested in accessing while waiting for their broker. (McBride, 2005)

After a thorough examination of both the customer and employee Web sites, it has been determined that there is currently no interest rate information or any type of financial calculator available to either the customer or McBride’s brokers. According to mortgagecalculator.org,

before anyone can buy a home, they must first determine how much house they can afford. This is undoubtedly the most important factor when looking for a home, because it determines what type of home they can buy as well as the location and how much they can get a mortgage for. (Mortgage Calculator, 2014)

Since this requirement is important to both the customer and company, a program must be designed and implemented to the McBride Financial Solutions Web site, which will involve a team of programmers with significant input from the company.

Programming Development Cycle

Now that the problem has been identified, the program must be planned