Business Systems Design - Report Example

? Business Systems Analysis and Design 14.10 REPORT Introduction Problem Definition Buckie Management Company carries out continued inspection of their equipments to see if they meet the standards stipulated in the market. Owing to this need, a structured way of carrying out these inspections had to be formulated. In this case the different facilities and resources to be inspected had to be identified and data stored. In the world today, institutions are embracing Information technology in carrying out most of their activities. As a result to this change we had to come up with a system to help the Buckie Company in collecting this information. The system was to incorporate both a database and was supposed to web based. Scope The system is supposed to allow for the recording of different equipment that the company uses. It is also supposed to allow for the different reporting as stipulated by the owner. Overview The project maintains two levels of users:- 1. Administrators Level: Managers 2. User Level: Data Entry Operator System Analysis Analysis of the system was carried out by prior studying the existing manual system within the organization. Questionnaires were given to the different people who were involved in the running of the manual system. People were first told the importance of the new system and why they needed to answer the questions correctly. The management was involved in coming up with the requirement of the system. Here, they were asked to give suggestions of how the system should look like and the functionalities it is supposed to give. After collecting these requirements, the team visited a neighboring company that had a similar system to learn how it was working. We learnt the flaws in the system so that we would not repeat the same mistakes in the system. This led to coming up with the requirement of the system. System Design After analysis of the current system, the group came up with the implementation mode of the required system which had to be web based. The system had to run on the server within the organization and was not accessible to the members of the public. In the system design requirements, were taken into considerations together with the authorized users. Main functionalities available in this system 1. Maintaining records of Electricity at Work. 2. Maintaining records on Hygiene inspections. 3. Records of gas equipments and pressure after they are tested. 4. Record on all the stocks annually. Main reports that the system is supposed to give. 1. Annual reports on all the stock available at the close of the year. 2. Producing a schedule of inspections to carried out and record the outcome each month. 3. A monthly report of inspections is made and equipment status after the inspection. Goals of the proposed system 1. Improved on a planned way for the company to carry out its activities- Due to the structured way of the system workers will be forced to follow a certain procedure while carrying out the different activities. This will make sure any activity does not skip any of the stipulated steps. 2. Accuracy- The system will ensure the record on the inventory is correct because of the need of passwords and usernames before any person makes any changes within the system. This will ensure that no items that can be removed from within the system due to fear of being identified on the auditing period. 3. Reliability- the system will be reliable because there will be data backup from system each day on the close of the business. This will ensure no data loss happens in the future in case of fires or any malicious damage by any worker. 4. Storage of a large amount of information allowing for data mining; The system will ensure data from different years will be available allowing easier analyzing of data in future. This analysis would be cheaper if everything had been stored on papers. 5. Easy to operate- easiness will be ensured in the system because of usage of the graphical user interface. This will ensure workers with only basic knowledge of computer can use the system. Technologies Used This system will be a web based system to be developed in PHP and mysql database. 1. Database Design (mysql). 2. Form Design (PHP 5.0). 3. Coding (php). 4. Reporting Tool (Php Report). System Requirements 1. Hardware Requirements- Machines with Pentium II, Pentium III or higher processor. The RAM should be 64 MB or higher with a hard disk space of a minimum of 40 GB. A server is also required. 2. Software Requirement- Windows operating system, mysql database and windows server 2000. Constraints 1. The system is only in English format and so every user is supposed to understand the language. 2. Due to security issues each user accessing the system is supposed to have a username and password making it inaccessible by guests. User characteristics Every user should: 1. Have basic knowledge working with a computer in the windows environment 2. They should have knowledge in the construction industry and stock maintenance. 3. Users should have knowledge in English because the user interface of the system will be in English. Feasibility Study Feasibility study had to be carried out to determine if the company would afford the system and if it was economical to replace the manual system with the new system. First cost analysis of the system was carried out taking into consideration the tools needed and software’s needed to implement the system. Then another feasibility study was carried out to determine the company had the required environment required for the implementation of the system. After this, it was observed that the company had a server within its premises, which was networked, with all the machines in the institution. This environment was good for the deployment of the web based system we were to make. On the basis of cost, it was observed that currently the company had 60 employees who were dedicated to carrying out the annual inventory recording. They were also doing the inspection regularly. This was to change with the deployment of this system where the workforce would be cut by half for the first year and then another half the following year. During feasibility we took into consideration the time that was required in designing, developing and deploying the system in the company environment. The time was seen as one month making the system direct cost also the indirect cost to the company on developing the system minimized. Testing The system has to be put to test to make sure it meets the required standards and identify any security vulnerability. White Box testing where the network of the company and the codes is tested to see if there are any redundant codes or repeating loops. This testing has to be carried on by experienced programmers. Corrective measures are then to be taken. Another form of testing to carried out is Black box testing. This testing is done by getting data from the company and then feeding it to the system. The testing group has to compare the results from the system from the expected results. This ensures that the system would not in any case give wrong results to the clients. After all this tests the system will be seen to comply with the requirements and the security measures that had been stipulated by the organization. Maintenance During the development of the system, the different form of maintenance had to be taken into consideration. The maintenance of the system has to start immediately it is deployed to the client. Adaptive maintenance has to be carried to make sure the system meets the client’s needs. This will also help in making it able to operate in the existing environment where there is usage of Microsoft windows server. Also, corrective maintenance need to be carried out to rectify those weaknesses identified in the system by the user immediately they start using it. As a result of the technicality involved in developing the system, the team of developers offered to train one of the companies’ workers on maintaining the system, to reduce on cost and time taken before identification of an error ant its correction. Data Entities and attributes 1. Login table This is supposed to authenticate the users before they log in the system. The attributes of this table are User_id, User_name, Password, Hint_ Question, Hint _Answer, and User_type. The primary key of the table is the User_id which should be unique. 2. Equipment table This table is supposed to hold data on every item that is owned by the company. Any item purchased must be recorded and the date of purchase indicated. When the item is disposed the date of disposal is also recorded. The attributes are name, the serial_ number, location, date_of _purchase, Date_of_Disposal, user_id. The primary, key in this table, is serial_number. The choosing of this serial number is due to the fact that every item has a unique serial_number. 3. Pressure_reading table This table is supposed to record data on each inspection of pressure. The attributes are pressure_ id, pressure, serial_number, date_of_reading, inspector_id. The table has a foreign key serial_number which references the equipment the pressure has been read. It also has another foreign key the inspector_id which references the inspector who carried out the activity. The primary key, in the table, is the pressure_id. 4. Inspector table This table holds data of the different inspectors who visits the organization. The attributes in the table are name, location, address, phone and inspector_id. The inspector-id is the primary key in this table. 5. Pat_testing table This holds the reading of different equipment after the portable appliance testing. The attributes are reading_id, reading, date_of_reading, serial_number and inspector_id. The table foreign keys the equipment table through the serial_number to signify the equipment that has been tested. It also foreign keys the inspector table by the attribute inspector_id to signify the inspector who carried out the activity. The primary key on the table is the reading_id. Life history of entities Equipment- the life history of the equipment begins in the database when it is registered by the user. It ends its life history in the database after it has been written off. Inspector-The life history of the inspector begins when he/she gets registered, and it ends when he/she stop inspecting the equipments within the organization. Pressure reading-the life history of this entity does not end. Pat reading –the life history of pat reading exists as long the system exists. Pressure reading- this entity life cycle exists through the life cycle of the system. A logical Data Structure The logical data structure shows a many to many relationship between the inspector table and the Pat_testing meaning that one inspector can make more than one Pat_testing. Also, the Pat_testing table has one to many relationship with the equipment table signifying one equipment can be tested more than once. The pressure reading table has one to many relationships. The equipment table means that equipment during its life time can have more than one reading in pressure (Davis, 2007). Data Flow Diagram 1 Data Flow Diagram 2 Reference Davis, W. (2007). Business systems analysis and design. Belmont, CA:Wadsworth Pub. Co. Read More