Information Technology for Pims Pumps Essay

Analysis section 1 – Background/to identification of problem Pims Pumps are an industrial pumping company which are involved in the distribution, installation and maintenance of industrial pumping units. The company has a large fleet of vans and many specialised tools and lots of equipment. Currently all of the equipment is logged in and out of the workshop and vans and this information is stored on paper. Analysis section 2 – identification of the prospective user(s) The prospective users are the managers of the business all of whom are computer literate and are already using a computer system for other aspects of the business. The company have a small network of computers installed and all involved are competent in opening and using Microsoft access 2000 Analysis section 3 – identification of user needs and acceptable limitations The system needs to be able to store large amounts of data about the whereabouts of equipment, it must be able to search through the data for any specified criteria, it must be able to be edited, it must be secure and user friendly. Interview Example documents from user Observation The proposed system can only be tested to a certain extent on being able to store large amounts of data Analysis section 4 – realistic appraisal of the feasibility of potential solutions. Analysis section 5 – justification of chosen solution I have chosen to use this system because Analysis section 6 – description of current system & data sources and destinations The current system involves the user logging in and out equipment to vans and back into the warehouse. The user must enter his/her name, the date and time, the registration of the vehicle they are taking it to, the name of the piece of equipment and the serial number of the piece of equipment. At the end of each week the logbook except for the most recent page is taken to the admin office and stored in a filing cabinet in date order. When a piece of equipment is missing, needed of has been damaged the user can then refer back to the log book to find out who if anyone still has the piece of equipment and who else has used it recently. This can be very time consuming, as the user has to visually scan through the logbooks until he comes to the entry, which could be anything up to 15 pages. This could easily result in human error and is a big waste of time Analysis section 8 – data flow diagram of current system At current there is no flow of data as the information is simply logged and referred to if needed in the future. Analysis section 7 – objectives of the project Input tasks (Data entry / Modification / View) The system will provide a user-friendly simple interface with the initial user allowing them to enter the same information as they usually do just on a keyboard. This should avoid all complications. The user interface for the initial user will be very secure to try and prevent accidental damage to the system however the management features will be able to be accessed by the management team through a password. There will be a user guide and a trouble shooting section to try and solve any potential problems. The system will be presented in form view with a main menu and various forms for different functions Output tasks (Reports) The system will be able to produce a report showing the location of any piece of equipment, or all the equipment one member of staff has recently used or all the equipment currently in a particular van. The system must be able to search through all the records for any criteria and produce a report for each one Processing tasks The system must be able to process the information and sort it into any order that the user wishes. Quantitative performance considerations The system is going to be run over a long period of time and so will need to be able to store a very large amount of data. This s one thing I will not be able to test to its full extent however I can estimate through hardware performance whether the system is adequate or not. Qualitative evaluation criteria Data security of the new system The system will have security passwords and all obvious features that would allow the user to enter restricted areas of the system would be disabled. The system will prompt the user to save changes or automatically save changes on exit anyway. Analysis section 9 – Data flow diagram of new system Analysis section 10 – E-R Model Project stage 2 : design Design section 1 – Overall system design The system will involve a series of tables, queries, reports and forms all linked together to provide a user-friendly system capable of all of the system requirements. I will have tables for vans, equipment, warehouse and users and will link these together and display them on one form. There will be a menu form giving the user options and security passwords for management to access and edit existing data or to view existing data. All of the data entry will be validated and the tables will be set to certain data types to try and ensure the user is entering the correct information. There will be four main tables related to bookings, employees, equipment and vehicles. There will also be four forms based upon these tables and then a main menu form for easy navigation of my database system Design section 2 – Description of modular structure of system The system will be based around 4 main tables. These are TblEmployees, which contains information about the employees that work at the company. TblEquipment, which lists equipment, details about it, its current location and a list of who has recently used it. TblVehicles will contain a list of all of the vans that Pims Pumps use and contain a list of all the equipment that is currently in each van. TblBookings will record all the bookings in an out that a piece of equipment makes and records the equipment and employee ID numbers. These tables will all be linked together in an entity relationship diagram. Design section 3 – Definition of data requirements The database will have to store relevant information about the employees using the booking system information about the company’s vehicles and equipment information. The fields I will store in my equipment table are as follows: 1. Equipment ID – A unique number assigned to each piece of equipment. 2. Description – a brief description of the piece of equipment 3. Service interval – The next date when the piece of equipment is due to be serviced The fields I will store in my employee table are as follows: 1. Employee name – full name of the employee 2. Employee ID – a unique number assigned to each employee The fields I will store in my vehicles table are as follows: 1. Registration – The registration number of my vehicle 2. Vehicle ID – A unique number assigned to each vehicle I will also have a bookings table, which will store the employee and equipment ID for each booking of equipment, and the date on which the booking was made. This will enable me to run a query to find out for example what equipment any employee has used or what equipment is currently in a certain van etc. Design section 4 – Identification of storage requirements and media Development hardware I can design my system on any hardware running Microsoft Windows 95 or later and that is capable of running Microsoft Access at speed. I do not require any additional specific hardware for designing my database. End-user hardware The end user already has hardware capable of running my database and all the staff are familiar with Microsoft based programs. Development software I will design the database in Microsoft Access as this is very flexible and powerful enough to undertake all or the required tasks End-user software The end user will also have to use Microsoft Access as that is the only program that my database will run on I will design the database to be user friendly and limit access to all of its functions to try and prevent accidental damage to the system. Design section 5 – Identification of suitable algorithms for data transformation Queries Macros Visual basic code Design section 6 – identification of any validation required I have several input masks throughout my tables however no validations are needed. The input masks that ii have used are simply in place to ensure that the user is entering the correct information or at least information that is in the correct format. Design section 7 – overall user interface design Here is a plan of the layout of my main menu; Design section 8 – Sample of planned data capture and entry (e.g. forms Design section 9 – sample of planned data validation Design section 8 – Description of record/database structure & normalisation Normalisation Tables design Design section 11 – Sample of planned valid output (e.g. reports) I will produce reports based on queries related to different things however the format will remain the same. Below is an example of what a report would look like if the user queried for what equipment an employee has recently used: Design section 12 – Database design including relations, foreign keys, and primary keys. Entity-relationship diagram List and describe all relations separately 1. There is a one to many relationship from Equipment ID in the Equipment table to Equipment ID in the booking table. This enables there to be many pieces of equipment logged in the bookings table. 2. There is a one to many relationship from Employee ID in the Employee’s table to Employee ID in the Bookings table. This enables there to be many employees listed in the bookings table of that one employee can have many bookings. Indicate all primary and foreign keys for each table TblEquipment’s primary key is Equipment ID and it contains no foreign keys TblBooking’s primary key is Booking ID and it contains Equipment ID and Employee ID as foreign keys TblVehicle’s primary key is Vehicle ID and it contains no foreign keys TblEmployee’s primary key is Employee ID and it contains no foreign keys Design section 13 – Planned measures for security and integrity of data Design section 14 – Planned measures for systems security Design section 15 – Overall test strategy Project stage 3 : Technical solution Project stage 4 : System testing Test section 1- Design of test plan & strategy Test section 2 – Minimal test data Test section 3 – Expected results for typical test data Test section 4 – Erroneous data (Check forms reject invalid data) Test section 5 – Expected results for extreme data Check that data just within range is accepted and stored Check that calculations using extreme data works Test section 6 – Hard copy of representative samples of test runs Project stage 5 : Maintenance Maintenance section 1 – System overview Maintenance section 2 – Summary of features used Maintenance section 3 -Sample of detailed algorithm design using a recognised methodology Maintenance section 4 – Annotated listings of program code, macro code & tailoring Maintenance section 5 – Screenshots (Mainly from design view) Table screenshots Reports screenshots Query screenshots Macro’s screenshots Visual basic code Maintenance section 6 – List/description of package items developed Project stage 6 : User manual User manual – Brief introduction User manual – Samples of actual screen displays in situ User manual – Samples of error messages and/or error recovery procedures Project stage 7 : Appraisal Appraisal section 1 – Comparison of project performance against objectives Evaluation of end-user requirements Evaluation of the qualitative criteria