GCSE ICT Coursework Two – Database Project

Authors Avatar
Analyse Section - GCSE ICT Coursework Two - Database Project

André Skepple-Garraway - Candidate No. 8218 1st April 2002

Hardware that will be used

For this I will use a QWERTY keyboard for the manual input of data and the commands for the computer. I will need a mouse or trackball to design the database forms, to navigate the GUI of the OS and to move, copy and paste data. I will need to use a 31/2 inch floppy disk and drive or a CDRW disk and drive in order to save my database and to make backups of my database. I will only use a CDRW if the database exceeds 1.38-1.44 MB. CDRW's can hold from 500-700 MB of information. I will need a printer to print out the design of my database of for word documentation of the database.

Software that will be used

I will need to use a database creation package like MS Access, Fox Pro, DBASE II or IV or Borland Database Explorer to create my database tables, queries, forms, reports and macros easily and also program them with the Visual Basic programming script to make my database into a professional running program. According to the user requirements MS Access is the best one also because it is mostly familiar to people. I will need a word processing package like MS Word, Notepad, WordPad and Word Perfect. MS Word is the best one to use because you can use word art and insert pictures or print screens into the document and also is mostly used by people. In Notepad you can only use one font and cannot put pictures in the document or have margins. Therefore you are pretty limited. To what you can do.

Information needed to solve problem and data entry

I will need to find out the customer's details. This includes their forename and surname, their date of birth, their address, their phone number and their gender. This information will be collected by a customer filling in a form at the shop and then the staff collected it in and input the information into the database. If the data needs to be collected then an invoice will be sent to the customer attached with another form to fill in the updated or correct details. Then they bring it back to the stop and then the staff edits it on the database. The video information will be collected by the staff producing a written table and will enter the video name, the quantity, barcode number, the genre, the price of rental and the renting of the video. Then they will input that information into the database. When there are new videos that have just come in stock they will use a scanning device that will automatically input the information the manufacturers programmed in the barcode automatically. The loans information will be collected y regularly checking the videos that the customers ID, forename and surname and video ID. From that list they input the information info the database and make it so that the overdue cost will automatically increase by the amount of days overdue. This will be done by calculations.

Evaluation of Data collection Methods

I would collect my information by handing out forms as mentioned above. I could also questionnaire the customers myself or by a form to fill in. I could also post people in the area advertising the store and also has a form to fill in and to post back to the store. I could also have online registration or they could register by phone.

Data Entry

The data will be entered by mostly manually. This will be done by reading the membership forms and the video invoices from the manufactures for the member and video information. The prices will be entered manually and the loans info will be entered manually by checking the logs of issues and typing them out.
Join now!


The advantage of using manual inputting is that the information is close to accurate and there is no extra cost in equipment. The disadvantage is that the manual input is time consuming and the person manually inputting the info could get it incorrect.

I could also use a flatbed scanner with OCR capabilities to scan it the membership forms or invoices and convert them to text and it is a matter of copying and pasting the information in their correct fields in the database.

The advantage of using optical character recognition is that it is ...

This is a preview of the whole essay