Then they take the specifications of the client and make a concept design. This will show the client how the finished work will look. If the client is then happy with that then the architects must go and survey the site to get a rough idea on what they have to work with.
After this they go back to the office and begin to design the given job. Once the design has been created they will take the initial ideas back to the customer. If the customer is satisfied with the way that the design looks then Philip will go to his office again and produce a final design.
One the final design is completed it will be checked by the customer and then sent to the council or appropriate authorities for planning permission. Once planning permission has been granted then the plan can be given to the builders so that they can start building. All of the way through building Philip or one of his employees will visit the building site in order to make sure that all is going to plan.
When the customer gets the final design in hand they then have to pay Philip through cash, cheque or credit card.
All of the paper work that goes with a job has to be kept for at least seven years for legal reasons and so that Philip can protect his company if anything goes wrong with the building. All of these records are currently kept in a huge filling cabinet in their own separate folders.
Questionnaire
- Would you be interested in a new database for you to keep your records in?
Yes, I would be greatly appreciative of a new database because I get annoyed with all of these bits of paper lying around.
- What is your annual turnover?
At the moment we have annual turnover of about £300,000. Every year we keep increasing our workload, so it should be bigger next year.
- How many employees do you have under you?
I currently have five employees that are full time and two free-lance staff.
- Do you plan to expand your business?
Yes, I plan to expand my business. At the moment I have just brought a new set of offices at ‘King George VI Park’, which will enable me to take on more staff and more work.
- What is your main source of income at the moment?
At the moment our main source of income is from designing new extensions or complete buildings. We get a little money from surveys.
- What type of data would you like a new database to hold?
If I were to get anew database then I would like it to hold details of my clients, my staff, jobs that I am doing and I would like to be able to get reports from it about my business.
- Would you be willing to use a database made by a GCSE student?
Yes, certainly. A lot of younger people are a lot better than a lot of people I know at computers.
Specification
Input:
‘Philip Dadds Architect and Associates’ need to put quite a few inputs into their system. These consist of:
- The client’s details: name, address, regularity of jobs, money made from their jobs.
- Different jobs: quotes or estimates, name of job, stages of job, stages of job complete, cost of job, reference number of jobs, past jobs, problems with jobs.
- Staff details: name, address, medical details, wages, amount of work done, qualifications, and free-lance architects.
- Meetings: time and date of meeting, purpose, whom with, location.
Output:
‘Phil Dadds Architect and Associates’ have to produce quite a lot of outputs such as:
- Client details: how much work they provide, if they do not provide a lot of work why, ways to them to entice them into providing more work, what sort of work do they give the most, how much money do they spend, how can we get them to spend more.
- Job details: quotes or estimates, what is the most popular type of job, what jobs bring in the most money, how can we get more of these jobs, what jobs bring in the least amount of money, is it worth actually doing these jobs, what needs to be done, when will it be done by, and what the total cost is (invoice).
- Staff details: what they need to be paid, are they having any time off, what provisions need to be made for when they’re away, are they doing enough work, how can you make them work harder, do you need to keep them on or are they not needed.
Processing:
The processing that the business would have to do is that they would have to sort and search. The kind of sorting that they would have to do is:
- Category of job: jobs could be put into categories of size, location, cost, type (renovation, development or new build).
- Client’s jobs: what jobs are with which clients, what is there biggest or latest job.
- Uses of sorting: it would make certain jobs easier to find, do not have to scroll through large lists to find a job.
Design for my GCSE Project
The program that I used to draw my design is called Chartist and is made by Novagraph. This program was particularly good for the job because it enabled you to put boxes in a blank screen whereever you wanted and to join them together with arrows.
Validation and Verification
When an electronic form is filled you will always have to do validation checks to try and make sure that the person has filled in truthful data or that they have not made a mistake when entering the data. The seven different types of validation checks are:
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Range Check: this check is where data is checked to see if it falls between a certain set of limitations e.g. when you ask someone to fill in their age you set the range to be between 0 and 130 years old. If it is out of these limitations then the person is likely to have been lying.
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Presence Check: this check is where things are checked to actually be filled in. For example if you ask someone to fill in their surname, you want to check that they have actually put an answer down and not just left it blank.
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Check Digit: this check is where a digit is used to ensure that the other digits in the string are correct. This digit is calculated from the other digits so that you can see if they have been inputted correctly e.g. Book ISBN number
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Type Check: this check is where the computer checks if the right type of data has been entered e.g. if someone enters their name it should not have any numbers in it.
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Format Check: this checks that the data has been entered in the correct order. E.g. a car registration is a letter followed by one to three numbers, followed by three numbers.
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Look up Table: this checks that the data entered is one of a pre-defined list that has been entered into the computer.
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Length Check: this check is where the computer checks whether the data entered is of an appropriate length. E.g. if someone enters their mobile telephone number it won’t be more than 14 digits.
All of the above validation checks will enable me to have some control over what gets entered into my database but there is something more that I need to do, which is called verification. Verification will help to make sure that the data that has been entered is correct and that the user has not incorrectly entered something. The point of this is that if something is entered incorrectly then it may cause some problems later on in the using of the database. One example of a computer using verification is when you enter a new password and you have to enter it twice to make sure that you have not misspelled it and that you know what your password is in future. Another example of verification is that when someone is purchasing something on the internet the computer will show them a copy of all of the details that they have entered so far including the items that they wish to buy and ask them if they are sure.
The precautions that I have taken to use the different types of validation and verification are:
Tables of Data
*this indicates that the field may not applicable.
Customers
Staff
Jobs
The fields, which are not applicable to fill in, will not need a presence check because the person may not have this. E.g. if you ask for someone’s telephone number they may not have one so they will not fill it in.
Hardware
Input Devices
The input hardware needed to run my database is a keyboard, a mouse and a number pad. The keyboard is needed to enter people’s details e.g. name, address, and telephone number. A mouse is not necessary to run my database because all commands that a mouse gives can be also given from a keyboard; the purpose of a mouse is simply for convenience and ease of use for the user. The use of a number pad enables the user to enter numbers more efficiently. Once again this is for convenience to the user because there is a number line on top of a keyboard which can enter numbers.
Output Devices
The output hardware that is needed to run my database is going to be a monitor, printer and possibly for speakers for sound. The monitor will be used for obvious reasons, such as being able to see what you are entering on the screen: making sure that what is being entered is correct. No ageism implied but older people, over the age of forty often have worse eye sight than younger people meaning that the monitor may have to be quite large so that the can read that words and see the buttons easier. It will also be recommended to use a monitor with quite a high resolution because this will enable the user to see the database more easily. The printer is so that the user can print off reports or people’s details for them to make sure that they are correct. The printer will also hopefully be able to print out invoices straight from the database. The type of printer that I hope to be used with the database is a colour laser printer. I want this because even though I want the pages to be in colour so that they please the customer more, I also want the printer to be fast so that the business is not held up by it. It will be useful to have a printer that is quite fast when reports are being printed out because they may consist of quite a few pages. The speakers could possibly be used to let people know if they have made a mistake or when the database starts up a sound could appear, just as when ‘Microsoft Widows’ opens and a short tune is played.
Processing
The computer that the program has to run on will need to be able to process the reports that the database entails. It will need to have sufficient ‘ram’ to store the amount of data contained in the database. The computer will also need quite a fast processor so that the data can be retrieved and saved quickly. A fast processor will also enable the reports to done quickly. The computer doesn’t actually have to have a fast processor, but it will mean that if there is a slow processor in the computer then the reports and data retrieval will be slower.
All in all the speed of the processor is just for a matter of convenience.
Software
To run and use the database you will need certain pieces of software. The main piece of software that will be needed will be Microsoft Access (at least the 1997 version). This is the program in which I am building my database and will be needed to run it. Another piece of software that will be needed to use this database will be is a printing program. This is not necessarily needed to run the database but will come in handy when a report is wanted to be printed out.