Creating a computer system for Wooten Basset Rugby Club

Authors Avatar

Gareth Moore – 4524        New College - 66528        

1 Analysis

1.1 Introduction

Wooten Basset Rugby Club, are a rugby club in the Swindon area, whom play 15 a side rugby union. They put out a numbers of teams each week ranging from junior levels, senior teams and women’s rugby. Of my concern is the U-16s, whom would like to computerise a number of tasks and have a reference for relevant data including player and parent information. In any particular season there will be between 20 and 30 players at the club. These players are trained by the head coach and around three other coaches all of whom are made up of parents of the players. The head coach is responsible for much of the current administrative work.

1.2 Current System

Currently all tasks for the club are carried out manually. For example when organising a match against a rival team a letter is written specifically for each player. With as many as 30 players at the club, this is tiring and tedious work.

Data is currently stored in files kept at the head coach’s house. This system of holding information has become unreliable as over the history of the team players have moved on or changed their details. When this occurs due to time constraints, addresses for example are often added to rather than modified creating two distinct addresses complicating matters when important letters need to be sent. In the past when players have left their file has not been removed leaving large amounts of useless information. All of this complicates matters when searching for data making the process longer and increasingly unreliable.

Among the squad of players, each player has his own specific needs. For example different players require different training methods such as fitness or tactics. With many players and few coaching staff it becomes difficult to organise. Currently this is organised through memory which is difficult due to the above reasons.

The current system has no scope for evaluating players from teams the club faces. No data is kept on players from other teams like their scoring or disciplinary records. They can therefore not assess before a fixture which players are a danger and tactics suffer.

Scoring and disciplinary data is stored on paper kept in files. This data is again not well managed and prone to being lost making analysing a player’s progress somewhere between difficult and impossible. Also they are unable to see which players are the top scorers or most ill disciplined.

Money management is also a problem. Fees used to pay math officials are deducted form the fees paid by players. This is organised by the coaches, however often players miss this payment and the referee’s payment is short. Yet with at least 15 players playing in every match records of owes money are not kept and this information is simply forgotten.

1.3 Interview Summary

In order to create this system it was important that I conduct an interview with one of the end users for the system. This will give a good outline of the requirements for the system. The interview was with the head coach whom will be the predominant user of the system.

From the interview this is an outline of what the new system will have to achieve:

  • Produce template letters for a number of issues. These letters include Match details, which will tell players about a match its date, venue and other relevant information. Invitation letter to other clubs inviting them to a match.
  • Player and parent data. Store contact details about players and parents.
  • Statistics. Store statistics on players including points scored, tries and appearances.
  • Team information. Store details on rival teams such as contact details.
  • Fixtures. Store fixture information including scores, dates and venues.
  • Ability to see reports on players from the club.
  • An ability to track membership payments. The system must indicate whether a players has paid his membership for that season.
  • Create leagues of the club’s leading scorers and those with the worst disciplinary records.
  • Store data about what type of training each player is on. For example some players may have fitness training or others forwards training.
  • Monitor finances for each fixture. For each fixture a player has to pay a fee of £2.

Other important points taken from the interview:

  • System must be as automated as possible as user wants system to save him time.
  • Simple user interface. Several of the coaches whom will use the system have very little knowledge of computers and will struggle with a complicated system.
  • System will be run from head coach’s lap top computer and therefore not need any network capabilities.
  • Head coach has copies of Microsoft Access already stored on his computer. IT experience consists only of use of Microsoft applications.
  • Data on fixtures and statistics only to be kept for one season at a time. After this period data will be deleted and new record will be kept.
  • Hold data relating to tournament and determine the club’s progress in these tournaments.

1.4 Data Requirements

        

From the interview it has become apparent that I will need to store a considerable amount of data. I have divided this data into the following groups: Players, Fixtures, Rivals, Rival Players, Players-Fixtures and Rival Players-Fixtures. A primary key will be used in every case to uniquely identify each record, these are marked by these symbols, < and >.

PLAYERS deals with data relating to players such as membership and contact details:

<Membership Number> – A unique code used to identify each player. Each Membership code is made up of three numbers and a letter. The letter represents the age group, as this letter only deals with one age group each membership code will have the letter, E. For example, 001E

Name – Christian and Surname only

Parent – Store parent’s name for contact details.

Address1 – Store first line of a player’s address.

Address2 – Store second line of a player’s address where applicable.

Postcode

Training-What type of training the player is on. User will only be able to select from these values: Fitness, Backs, Forwards or General.

Telephone Number

Membership Paid – Whether a player has paid membership fees for current year or not.

FIXTURES handles data revolving each fixture played or to be played:

<Fixture Code> – Identifies each fixture uniquely as some fixture may be against the same team.

Team Code – Determines which team is to be played or has been played

Team Score – Score for Wooten Bassett, null if not played.

Rival Score – Score for rival, null if not played.

Tournament Code – Foreign key which identifies which tournament a fixture belongs to. Friendly fixtures will be determined by a specific code.

Date

Venue – Select from either home or away.

Round – Determines which round of the competition, for example first round or semi final.

RIVALS holds data on teams played by the rugby club, this includes contact details:

<Team Code> – Each team will be assigned a unique in case of two teams

having the same name.                                                                                                        

Team Name – Name of each rival team.

Telephone 

Address1 – First line of each team’s address.

Address2 – Second line of each team’s address if applicable.

City

Postcode

Directions – Description of how to reach rival club.

PLAYERS-FIXTURES relates to the actions of players in each fixture, this includes scores and disciplinary information:        

Join now!

<Membership Number> – Used to identify player for which record is stored.

<Fixture Code> – Identifies which fixture record relates to.

Tries – Number of tries scored by a particular player in each                         fixture.

Penalties – All penalty kicks converted by a player in a fixture.

Drop Kicks – All drop kicks scored by a player in a fixture.

Disciplinary – Whether a player was disciplined in a fixture and what level of action, a yellow card for example.

Fee Owed –The amount paid will be displayed from.

TOURNAMENT holds data relating to tournaments the clubs plays in:

<Tournament Code> - ...

This is a preview of the whole essay