A secondary school holds many different exams around the school year, students who attend the exams need to know where, when and what the exams are, and also the particular seat assigned to them - Create a systems update for this.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 4

Background 4

The Current System 4

REQUIREMENTS OF THE NEW SYSTEM 5

REQUIREMENTS OF THE NEW SYSTEM 6

General objectives 6

Specific Objectives - Quantitative 6

Specific Objectives - Qualitative 6

CONSTRAINTS 7

Hardware 7

Software 7

User's IT skills and knowledge 7

SPECIFICATION 8

SPECIFICATION 9

Requirements Specification 9

INPUT, OUTPUT AND PROCESSING NEEDS 9

Input 9

Processes 10

Outputs 11

DESIGN 12

Tables 12

Forms 15

CANDIDATE INFORMATION 15

Find a candidate 15

Find a Candidates ID number 16

Find Details about a candidate 16

Find a list of exams a candidate has been entered for 16

View a list of all candidates on this system 16

Enter a new candidate 16

EXAM DETAILS 17

Find Exams Being Taken on a particular Date 17

Find Exams Being Taken by a Particular Candidate 17

Enter a new exam 17

View a List of all Exams 17

EXAM HANDOUT SHEETS 17

Print sheet for all Candidates 18

Print Sheet for Specific Candidate 18

Queries 19

Relationships 19

IMPLEMENTATION 19

26/02/03 - 22

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CREATED: EXAMS TABLE "TBLEXAMS"; 24

Design 24

LAYOUT 24

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Design 25

Layout 26

FIND CANDIDATE/DETAILS 32

TESTING 35

Introduction

Background

A secondary school holds many different exams around the school year, students who attend the exams need to know where, when and what the exams are, and also the particular seat assigned to them. There are about 200-300 end user's (candidates), and one administrator who inputs all candidate details, exam courses available in the school, and which candidates are taking which courses. The administrator then has to supply each candidate with their candidate number, a list of all exam courses they are taking, the location of the exam and which seat has been assigned to them.

The Current System

The current system is an A3 page of a plan of the seating arrangement, with a candidate number assigned to each separate seat. This plan is placed outside the exam room so that each student can find out their seating number. The candidates are supplied with a sheet that tells them their candidate number, what exams they are taking, the date the exam is being held, the location of the exam, and the seat number that has been assigned for each exam.

There is no current way (or the current system is too disorganised) of finding out any essential information if the sheet is lost, forgotten, or never received. The system relies too much on students to remember which room has been allocated, which is hard during times of stress - such as at the start of an exam. The present system is non-computerised. This has many disadvantages; for one, the system cannot be searched for data, seating position can only be found if the candidate knows their Candidate Number.

Requirements of the new system

General objectives

The new system is not designed to replace to the old system, it is designed to improve it and add new areas which were previously unavailable without computers. The new system must be able to create the exam sheets handed out to candidates, and also will enable queries. Queries will be run to find out such things as

* The candidate seating position by entering student details or candidate number

* The candidate's details by entering the candidate number or candidate seat

* Who is sat in a particular seat by entering the seat number

* Where the exam is being held, and what subject the exam is testing

This information will also be in the form of an email, mailed directly to the students a week prior to the exam, as well as being available on the new system, (set up on a computer near the main hall, or some other accessible area) before the exam starts if the candidate forgets.

Students need to know where the exam is being held, and where they are seated (when the papers are collected, they need to be organised into candidate numbers, so seating students correctly stops unnecessary sorting at the end).

Specific Objectives - Quantitative

* The system must work with speed; speed is essential because if a candidate is late to an exam, and does not know any of the essential details, the problem must be rectified with speed so the candidate can start his/her exam as soon as possible. Details must be available in less than 30 seconds.

* New candidate details do not need to be entered so quickly, as this can be done at any time. Details to be entered within a minute and a half.

* The exam sheets must be created automatically, because typing out each one will take to much time and effort.

* The emails to be sent out must be automatically created to save time and effort.

Specific Objectives - Qualitative

* The system must be relatively user-friendly and simple to operate, so confusion is not an issue.

* User-friendliness is important, because an exam room is a stressful environment, so the less stress added to the situation the better.

* This is also a reason for it to be simple to use, but also, if the system must deliver the information as fast as possible, the user may be trying to access the information quickly, and therefore possible errors must be kept to a minimum.

* The forms and mail merge can be slightly more complex, because only the administrator is to use them.

Constraints

Hardware

I will be designing the system on computer with a 1GHz CPU, with 128Mb ram and 15" Monitor, keyboard and mouse.

When the system is completed; the hardware can be used on a computer with the minimum of a 300 MHz CPU, 128Mb of Ram, a 17" Monitor (so information is visible easily), keyboard and mouse.

Software

The software to be used is MS access, a database program. This program is the most appropriate, because of its following characteristics:

* Queries - the candidates name and/or other credentials can be used to find out essential candidate & exam information.

* Forms - an easy-to-use interface can be created by which the information can be input, accessed and manipulated.
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* Reports - a list of all candidates can be made for use in a mail merge to inform students of when the exam is to take place.

* Tables - the candidate information can be entered in and stored easily and in a good layout.

* Relationships - Tables can be linked to give a better layout of candidate information.

The computer must also use a compatible OS for MS Access such as Microsoft Windows 98 or NT.

User's IT skills and knowledge

Because the system is designed to be simple, the ...

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