Performance of Kisii Boys’ High School is very important to remain in top position and combat other highly competitive schools in the country. Automating its management operations system is the way forward on improving its performance. The system addresses the following: – •Increase in productivity by easing up manual tasks. •Provide efficient services to their students. •Reduce data redundancies. •Save on document storage space. •Reduce paper work through electronic data storage. •Ease up document storage and retrieval. Background of the study
Kisii Boys’ High School is a secondary school owned by Kisii co-operative farmers association. It is entrusted with provision of services to the members to help them improve the level of education together with their standards of living through offering secondary education to its members with a subsidized cost. To provide the above services, the school ensures that every family with a high school going child has been given an opportunity irrespective of the financial situation where by the parents who are members of the association pay their school fees through the cooperative society.
Due to these ease of educational cost, most parents in the area have preferred accessing education from Kisii boy’s high school. The high population of the students has made it difficult for referral services of the record kept about student information. Kisii high school has brought employment to many teachers who are unemployed by the government. Problem statement The problem at hand is to develop a computer based transaction and management processing system that would capture and process data about the school transactions. The systems should also do data maintenance i. . Provide for ability to update stored data. Through the investigative process the problems discovered with the current systems are:- •Unable to process transactions in time. •Competition from other schools threatens the survival of the school unless there is a change in management strategies. •Increased number of students may overload the current system ability to process transactions. •Many students are quitting due to poor and delayed services •Internal inefficiencies and students service problems. Objectives of the study Develop a system that is user friendly to save time and energy and to enhance the usability of the system. •Develop a system that will generate passwords to enhance the security of the information stored. •Come up with a system that will easily detect fees that are not cleared. •To register new students. •To modify and up-date existing records. •To allow deletion or addition of records when the need arises. •To provide a list of all students and their account status. •To print student’s report cards. Scope The scope is to design, develop and implement a computerized system that will help manage the schools’ activities.
The current system being used is sensing growing dissatisfaction among the students and teachers thus the need for a computerized one to help in accuracy and efficiency at the school. I intend to computerize the registration/admission of new students, the accounts department to ensure transparency and efficiency in the school. Also I intend to computerize the teachers’ personal details to help keep track of their information and lastly I will computerize the examination process to help students get their results quicker.
I did not computerize the payroll system for the teachers/workers because of lack of enough funds available to the school. Limitation of the study 1. Time The processing of receipts takes time and there have been cases of receipts being processed late hence resulting to wastage of a lot of time and money at the varied offices as this leads to corruption as people try to look for easy ways 2. Resources The storage media used for storage and retrieval of information takes time to search and retrieve the required operation data. Sometimes the data stored is difficult to keep track of. . Cost The school has been forced to employ so many people so as to cope with this problem but the system is so rigid that this turns to be an expense rather than a saving. 4. Effort The system is not able to handle the huge numbers of students and sometimes students have been overcharged since the system provides no reasonable check measures for data. Justification Developing an automated system for the school eased up clerical activities. This implies increased productivity, reduction in costs and speedy or fast retrieval of student’s records.
Data Storage and retrieval mechanisms will now be user friendly and efficient. Chapter 2 Literature review Some of the most successful business corporations in the world seem to have hit upon an incredible solution which is Business Process Reengineering (BPR).
This is a business management strategy focusing on the analysis and design of workflows and processes within an organization. BPR is the “Reengineering is the basic re-invention of business processes to achieve perfect improvements in critical, and core activities of performance such as cost, quality, service and speed. A School Management System (SMS) is a large database system which can be used for managing the school’s day to day business. School Management System allows the users to store almost all of their school’s information electronically, including information on students, employees, properties, teaching materials etc. Most importantly, this information can be easily shared with authorized users, records can be easily searched, and reports can be easily generated. School Management System could make your school staff’s life easier than ever.
Using School Management System, finding student information is just a few seconds away which might have cost hours, or even days, before. At the end of the term, printing students’ report cards becomes just a few minutes’ job, but it could be a nightmare without using School Management System. History of school management systems According to Dotsquares, A school Management System is designed to improve the way the school is managed and a step ahead towards the goal of paperless as of full automation of school administration.
It is a simple yet powerful one point integrated platform that connects all the departments of an institution namely office administration: – time table – examination – student information – certification – reports generation – result generation, fee counter, library, canteen, pay roll, vendor, accounts, inventory and so on. The system helps educators to manage, analyze and report extensive data, while saving time by eliminating repeated data entry. It is a complete solution for management of educational institutions, covering all the aspects of educational business, including administrative, accounting and key academic activities.
It centralizes the complete data and automates all the routing educational institutes’ functions. The School Management System Company has the following definition of a school management system. “A School Management System is a dynamic platform which allows educational institutions to manage their whole organization through the web, any time from anywhere in the world. It nurtures the interaction between school, teachers, students and parents in a most effective way. The above definition shows that a school management system is not only restricted to a stand-alone computer/system, it can also be web-based allowing information to be viewed across the country even world wide as long as you are an authorized user. Chapter 3 Methodology Every single project needs to have a methodology to follow. The waterfall development methodology is my chosen method. “The Waterfall model is a software development model first proposed in 1970 by W. W. Royce, in which development proceeds linearly through the phases of requirements analysis, design, implementation, testing (validation), integration and maintenance”.
As you see from the diagram above from the direction of arrows, you are able to go one stage back and make changes. If any problem appears in any stage, you are able go back to that stage and fix it. This is the characteristic of waterfall model. As long as you go back, you can come up with better decision. This is the main reason of choosing waterfall model because it is suitable for future changes and especially my project because school management systems keep on changing day by day. My project contains technology elements. Therefore, it will likely have some changes due to technology improvement in every year.
The waterfall model is the most suitable methodology in this kind of project. 1. Requirements analysis: This first step is also the most important, because it involves gathering information about what the customer needs and defining it in the clearest possible terms, the problem that the product is expected to solve. Analysis includes understanding the customer’s business context and constraints, the functions the product must perform, the performance levels it must adhere to, and the external systems it must be compatible with. 2.
Design: This step consists of defining the hardware and software architecture, specifying performance and security parameters, designing data storage containers and constraints, choosing the IDE and programming language, and indicating strategies to deal with issues such as exception handling, resource management and interface connectivity. This is also the stage at which user interface design is addressed, including issues relating to navigation and accessibility. The output of this stage is one or more design specifications, which are used in the next stage of implementation. . Implementation: This step consists of actually constructing the product as per the design specification(s) developed in the previous step. Typically, this step is performed by a development team consisting of programmers, interface designers and other specialists, using tools such as compilers, debuggers, interpreters and media editors. 4. Testing: In this stage, both individual components and the integrated whole are methodically verified to ensure that they are error-free and fully meet the requirements outlined in the first step.
Three types of testing typically take place: unit testing of individual code modules; system testing of the integrated product; and acceptance testing, formally conducted by or on behalf of the customer. 5. Installation: This step occurs once the product has been tested and certified as fit for use, and involves preparing the system or product for installation and use at the customer site. 6. Maintenance: This step occurs after installation, and involves making modifications to the system or an individual component to alter attributes or improve performance. Advantages of waterfall model: Simple and easy to understand and use. •Easy to manage due to the rigidity of the model – each phase has specific deliverables and a review process. •Phases are processed and completed one at a time. •Works well for smaller projects where requirements are very well understood. Disadvantages of waterfall model: •Once an application is in the testing stage, it is very difficult to go back and change something that was not well-thought out in the concept stage. •No working software is produced until late during the life cycle. •High amounts of risk and uncertainty. Not a good model for complex and object-oriented projects.
•Poor model for long and ongoing projects. •Not suitable for the projects where requirements are at a moderate to high risk of changing. Data collection techniques The technique that I used to collect the facts and data is an interview. I chose this type of technique mainly because of the following reasons: •Interviews can be conducted in person or over the telephone. •Interviews can be done formally (structured), semi-structured, or informally. •The questions are usually clear and encourage open-ended responses. Interviews are mainly qualitative in nature. •You are able to get firsthand information from the interviewee. •It allows the interviewee to be explained the question if he/she doesn’t understand. •They investigate issues in an in depth way. •They discover how individuals think and feel about a topic and why they hold certain opinions. But on the other hand this technique also has its disadvantages: •The interviews are very time consuming •Costly in that the interviewer is supposed to travel to different places to conduct the interview. Different interviewers may understand and transcribe interviews in different ways •Some respondents might be hostile to the interviewer. Tools used to analyze the data The following are the tools that were used to analyze the data collected. Box and Whisker Plot: A tool used to display and analyze multiple sets of variation data on a single graph. Check sheet: A generic tool that can be adapted for a wide variety of purposes, the check sheet is a structured, prepared form for collecting and analyzing data. Control chart: A graph used to study how a process changes over time.
Comparing current data to historical control limits leads to conclusions about whether the process variation is consistent (in control) or is unpredictable (out of control, affected by special causes of variation).
Histogram: The most commonly used graph for showing frequency distributions, or how often each different value in a set of data occurs. Scatter diagram: A diagram that graphs pairs of numerical data, one variable on each axis, to look for a relationship. Stratification: A technique that separates data gathered from a variety of sources so that patterns can be seen. Tools to implement and test the system
The implementation tool used to test the project was the Microsoft Visual Basic. It is a third generation event driven programming language and integrated development environment from Microsoft. It enables the user to have rapid application development of graphical user interface applications access to databases using data access objects, remote data objects and creation of Active X controls and objects. It provides the user an interface that is easy to use whereby he is able to use the components provided and is also able to write the code of those objects and test whether it is performing as expected.
If it is, it will be able to run and if it’s not, it will generate an error and it will mark it so that the programmer can be able to correct it. Time schedule and project cost Minimum system requirements Hardware Requirements MATERIALPRICE IN KSH Processor p4(Intel 3. 0)CPU8000 2GB RAM999 250 GB HDD1800 1. 44mb floppy drive500 UPS to prevent loss of data after power loss1000 CD ROM1500 Color monitor low radiator2500 Software Requirements MATERIALPRICE IN KSH Microsoft access for database storage and retrieval2000 visual basic 6. 02000 windows up2500 ESET Nod32 anti-virus945 Schedule
ACTIVITIESSTART DATEFINISH DATEDURATION (WEEKS) Proposal writing17/10/1105/11/113 Data collection(identify the challenges)07/11/1126/11/113 Literature review27/11/1110/12/112 Requirement Analysis11/12/1122/12/122 System design02/01/1221/01/123 Coding n implementation23/01/1210/03/127 Testing 12/03/1224/3/122 documentation17/10/11 presentation Gantt chart CHAPTER 4 System analysis and requirement modeling PROJECT FEASIBILITY STUDY This will be carried to define the current system’s problems and decide on whether a new system is worthwhile, spending minimum amount of money and time.
The study will focus on economical, technical and operational feasibility studies. Technical feasibility study The technical issues that will be tackled include whether the availability of resources /equipment are sufficient to support the development and implementation of the new system, or if there is the need to purchase new ones, and the cost of acquiring them. The current system is manual and the proposed system has to be computerized hence the organization has to acquire the necessary equipments e. g.
Personal Computers, printers, Operating System, necessary application software, storage facilities. The availability, affordability and user friendliness of the software and hardware to be used on the new system was evaluated and this was estimated to cost Kshs. 585, 700. Economic feasibility study It is estimated that the cost of coming up with an automated system will be around 585,700. The benefits of computerizing the operations of the Company were found to outdo the risks and thus it was deemed a noble idea to commit the company’s resources on the same.
After a thorough study it was found out that the system could support the company great deal in terms of its benefits. These benefits were compared to the costs that were to be used in development of the system and these costs were outweighed by the benefits. Benefits like: •Reduced labor wages •Reduced time in answering customer queries •Increased profits due to faster business activities •Improved decision-making •Faster services Operational feasibility study The proposed system will be humanly feasible considering that most of the staff in the Company is computer literate and they welcomed the idea.
The computer illiterate employees would be trained and also the computer literate employees would have refresher courses on the new technology without straining the budgetary allocation. This in the long term will result to efficiency in the delivery of services and in turn increase the company’s returns. Feasibility Study Report The aim of carrying out feasibility study was to know how the current system works in order to achieve the goals of the company. Overview of the Current System Kisii Boys’ High School is a secondary school owned by Kisii co-operative farmers association.
It is entrusted with provision of services to the members to help them improve the level of education together with their standards of living through offering secondary education to its members with a subsidized cost. To provide the above services, the school ensures that every family with a high school going child has been given an opportunity irrespective of the financial situation where by the parents who are members of the association pay their school fees through the cooperative society. Due to these ease of educational cost, most parents in the area have preferred accessing education from Kisii boy’s high school.
The high population of the students has made it difficult for referral services of the record kept about student information. Kisii high school has brought employment to many teachers who are unemployed by the government. Currently, the records of students are kept on a book. The school would find that if this information was put into a computer it would be very useful and appropriate. The school wants to develop a well documented computerized system that handles transactions and management services for the school. Proposed system
I intend to computerize the registration/admission of new students, the accounts department to ensure transparency and efficiency in the school. Also I intend to computerize the teachers’ personal details to help keep track of their information and lastly I will computerize the examination process to help students get their results quicker. I did not computerize the payroll system for the teachers/workers because of lack of enough funds available to the school. Functions for the users Teacher: •View a student’s annual performance •Print student’s report card Enter student’s marks into the system •View students personal information Bursar •Check students fee balance •View and edit students fee balance Headmaster •View the employee’s (teachers) personal information •View students personal information •View students fee balance •Can print students report cards Functional requirements •Increase in productivity by easing up manual tasks. •Provide efficient services to their students. •Reduce data redundancies. •Save on document storage space. •Reduce paper work through electronic data storage. •Ease up document storage and retrieval. Ensuring improved student services by efficiently managing the school systems. •Improved employee’s morale, due to better processing and operations management. •Improved internal decision support so that discussions are more reliable made on time. •Support the competitive strategy of the school. •Improved corporate profits through reduction of quitting students. Non-functional requirements Level O: Context Diagram Use Case diagram CHAPTER 6 System Implementation Tools used for coding are: •Visual basic 2008 A programming language and environment developed by Microsoft.
Based on the BASIC language, Visual Basic was one of the first products to provide a graphical programming environment and a paint metaphor for developing user interfaces. Instead of worrying about syntax details, the Visual Basic programmer can add a substantial amount of code simply by dragging and dropping controls, such as buttons and dialog boxes, and then defining their appearance and behavior. Although not a true object-oriented programming language in the strictest sense, Visual Basic nevertheless has an object-oriented philosophy.
It is sometimes called an event-driven language because each object can react to different events such as a mouse click. •Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Management Studio Express (SSMSE) This is an integrated environment for accessing, configuring, managing, administering, and developing all components of SQL Server. SQL Server 2008 Management Studio Express combines a broad group of graphical tools with a number of rich script editors to provide access to SQL Server to developers and administrators of all skill levels.
Developers get a familiar experience, and database administrators get a single comprehensive utility that combines easy-to-use graphical tools with rich scripting capabilities. Testing System Testing Before the transfer to operational status, the project administrator and system designer gave a written and signed document to the effect that the system is fit for operation. In testing, simple files were created and the sequence of the data flow diagram followed. The output from each program was scrutinized to see that the data has been processed correctly.
There were error on text rendering and were quickly corrected. Testing will build up the confidence and experience of the administrator as well as the users. Test plan The test plan was developed to keep track of possible tests that would be run on the system after coding. The test plan document was developed as the project was being developed and recorded tests as they came up. Unit Testing This is was the first test in the development process and ensured that each unique part of the project performed accurately to the documented specifications and contained clearly defined inputs and expected results.
Each module was tested to ascertain that it fully performed as expected. TestTest AreaExpected ResultsActual Results Unit TestingAdd new recordsThe system should be able to add in new details to the databaseNew records were added successfully Update records The system should update details and save changes made in the database. Records updated successful. Integration Testing This involves testing integration modules. This was done to ensure that modules interactions with each other were working and that the integration of the modules making up the system were working.
TestTest AreaExpected ResultsActual Results Integration TestAuthentication of userOnly authorized users should be able to gain access into the system. Only authenticated users where able to login. Relationships among ModulesThe established relationships should not be conflicting. The relationship was not conflicting. 6. 3 Acceptance Testing This involves testing the system with the intent of confirming readiness of the customer acceptance TestTest AreaExpected Results Acceptance TestingInteraction of users with the systemThe user should be able to use the system with ease. Validation testing
This type of testing was done mainly on the database whereby mainly the input masks are put. For example a field for a name is supposed to accept only letters not numbers. If this is so, then the testing phase is successful. The test was found to be successful. Component Nature of test: Validation TestResultsAction to be taken Log-in form Test whether the user can access the system after typing the right user name and the right password. The user logs in None Type a wrong user name and password Login Failure! Try AgainNone Type a right user name and a wrong passwordLogin Failure!
Try AgainNone Type a wrong user name and a right passwordLogin Failure! Try AgainNone System Testing Type Of TestAreas to be Tested Expected ResultsActual Results System TestingEntire system The system shall be able to store and process data. The system was functioning as expected. Output screenThe system shall output the right required outputThe system generated the correct output Input ScreenThe system shall be able to validate the input such that only the right values are acceptedThe system was able to validate the input to ensure that only correct values were keyed.
This is a process of testing an integrated hardware and software system to verify that the system meets its specified requirements. The following areas of the system were tested for correctness and were found out that they were functioning as expected. Change over technique System Changeover -: As name suggest it is the process of changing the old information system. System changeover is the process of putting the new information system online and retiring the old system. Pilot changeover -: The pilot operation changeover method involves implementing the complete new system at a selected location of the school.
The group that uses the new system first is called the pilot site. The old system continues to operate for the entire school including the pilot site. After the system proves successful at the pilot site, it is implemented in the rest of the school, usually using direct cutover method. Pilot operation is combination of parallel operation and direct cutover methods. Pilot site assure the working of new system and reduces the risk of system failure. This is also less expensive than the parallel operation as only at one section both system works for limited period. CHAPTER 7
Limitation, Conclusions and recommendations Challenges encountered During the system development, some challenges were experienced. a)Collecting data from respondents was a big challenge especially where some of the respondents were reluctant to give information. b)Financial constraints – research had to be done from place to place to collect data. c)Developing the actual system was also a challenge because I was not quite conversant with the practical part of systems development Conclusion Recommendations . Reference http://www. studymode. com/subjects/literature-review-on-school-management-system-page1. html