Allow users (prospective pet owners, shelter staff, administrators) to create and manage accounts with role-based access control.
Implement secure authentication methods, including password recovery and multi-factor authentication.
Pet Listings and Management:
Enable shelters to create, update, and manage pet listings, including details such as breed, age, size, health status, and photos.
Support categorization and tagging of pets to facilitate search and filtering.
Search and Filtering:
Provide advanced search functionality to find pets based on criteria such as breed, age, size, location, and adoption status.
Implement filtering options to narrow down search results based on various attributes.
Pet Details and Profiles:
Display detailed profiles for each pet, including photos, descriptions, medical history, and personality traits.
Allow users to view and download pet profiles for further consideration.
Adoption Application and Process:
Allow prospective pet owners to submit adoption applications online, including personal information, preferences, and references.
Provide tools for shelters to review, approve, or reject adoption applications and communicate decisions to applicants.
Appointment Scheduling:
Enable users to schedule appointments for pet viewings or meet-and-greets with shelter staff.
Provide tools for managing and coordinating appointments, including reminders and notifications.
Communication and Messaging:
Provide messaging functionality for communication between prospective pet owners and shelters, including inquiries about pets and adoption status.
Allow shelters to send notifications and updates to applicants about their application status.
Adoption Fees and Payments:
Support online payment processing for adoption fees and other related costs.
Provide secure payment methods, including credit/debit cards and digital wallets.
Pet Adoption Tracking:
Track the status of each pet’s adoption process, including application progress, appointments, and final adoption.
Provide reports and dashboards for shelters to monitor adoption statistics and trends.
User Reviews and Feedback:
Allow users to leave reviews and feedback about their adoption experience and interactions with the shelter.
Provide tools for shelters to manage and respond to reviews.
Admin Dashboard:
Provide administrators with a dashboard for managing users, pet listings, applications, and system settings.
Include tools for tracking system activity, generating reports, and handling user support.
Integration with Shelter Management Systems:
Support integration with existing shelter management systems for seamless data exchange and synchronization.
Provide APIs and connectors for integrating with other tools and services used by shelters.
Data Export and Import:
Allow users to export pet data, adoption statistics, and other relevant information in various formats (e.g., CSV, Excel, PDF).
Support data import from external sources for initial setup and data migration.
Non-Functional Requirements
Scalability:
The system should handle increasing numbers of pets, users, and adoption applications without performance issues.
Support for scaling infrastructure to accommodate growth and peak usage periods.
Performance:
Ensure fast and responsive interactions, with quick pet searches, application processing, and data retrieval.
Optimize performance to handle large volumes of pet data and concurrent users efficiently.
Reliability and Availability:
Ensure high availability with minimal downtime, supported by redundancy, load balancing, and failover mechanisms.
Implement regular backups and disaster recovery procedures to maintain service continuity.
Usability:
The user interface should be intuitive and user-friendly, accommodating users with varying levels of technical expertise.
Provide a consistent and seamless experience across different devices and platforms.
Security:
Implement robust security measures to protect user data, pet information, and financial transactions, including encryption, secure authentication, and access controls.
Protect against unauthorized access, data breaches, and cyber threats.
Maintainability:
Ensure the system is easy to maintain, with clear documentation, modular design, and support for regular updates and bug fixes.
Implement automated monitoring and logging to identify and address issues promptly.
Compliance:
Ensure the system complies with relevant regulations and standards, such as data protection laws (e.g., GDPR, CCPA) and animal welfare regulations.
Provide features to support auditing, data retention, and regulatory reporting requirements.
Data Integrity and Accuracy:
Ensure that all data collected and processed by the system is accurate, consistent, and up-to-date.
Implement validation checks and data integrity mechanisms to prevent errors and data corruption.
Localization and Internationalization:
Support multiple languages and regional settings to cater to a global user base.
Allow easy adaptation of the system to meet local regulations and cultural practices.
Accessibility:
Ensure that the system is accessible to users with disabilities, following web accessibility standards (e.g., WCAG).
Provide features such as screen reader compatibility, keyboard navigation, and adjustable text sizes.
Privacy and Data Ownership:
Ensure that users retain ownership of their data and can easily control, access, and delete their information.
Provide transparency regarding data usage, sharing, and storage practices, with clear consent mechanisms.
