General objectives
The general objective of this project is to help Games 4 You to improve and be computer based I will do this by instead of writing costumer information such as addresses, numbers, names and surnames on paper and filing it risking possible loss of data I will make a database containing fields that all this data can be stored safely with no risk of being lost after some back up is made, I will get the staff that work in Games 4 You trained on internet use so that they can e-mail companies for products they need restocking on also send costumers information on new products or deals and delivery dates of ordered products and make them feel ‘special’ or individuals and finally I will make costumer IDs for each costumer so that I can make a loyalty card feature which the company wanted so that loyal costumers can benefit from going to Games 4 You regularly and shopping there this will mean costumers will choose going to Games 4 you instead of competing stores with same priced products for the points they will get and the benefits the store gives.
Quantitative objectives
The quantitative objectives are the objectives I will be setting for what my new system should de able to do in a certain limit of time. This is important for Games 4 You because it will save time in the work place.
- The user of the system will be able to enter new customer information in 3 minutes to 5 minutes max.
- Mail merge to send letters efficiently and quickly.
- To find out which format of games (PS2, PS1, XBOX .etc) a particular costumer buys within 30 seconds.
- To find the costumers address with in 30 seconds.
- To find the costumers phone number within 30 seconds.
- To find the e-mail address of a costumer within 1 minute and send an e-mail within 3 minutes.
- To find out other ways of contacting costumer in 40 seconds.
- Should be able to open a query or a form in 10 seconds.
Qualitative objectives
The qualitative objectives are the objectives I will be setting for my new system to be able to achieve these objectives will not be easily measured.
- The system should be user friendly.
- It should be easy to navigate through the programme or application to find information with ease even for a novice.
Hardware
The hardware available at Hornsey School for Girls are as follows:
Pentium 4 processor
DVD/CDRW with floppy disk drives.
Input Devices
Keyboard-to enter information in databases and/or other applications.
Mouse-to click on various buttons to do what you want.
Output Devices
Printer Brother Laser jet HL – 1870N-to print out any information needed in hard copy.
Processor
Clock speed: 2.8 GHz
Processor type: Intel Pentium 4
Installed processor qty: 1
Max supported processor qty: 1
RAM
RAM installed: 256 MB
Max supported RAM: 2 GB
Memory specification compliance: PC2700
Memory speed: 333 MHz
RAM form factor: DIMM 184-pin
RAM technology: DDR SDRAM
RAM upgrade rule: Max 2 x 1 GB module
System
Recommended use: Small business, corporate business
System type: Personal computer
Video Output
Video Output / Graphics Processor / Vendor: Intel 865G
Max colour resolution (external) : 32-bit colour
Max resolution (external) : 2048 x 1536
Video output form factor : Integrated
Video output interface type : AGP 8x
Video output type : Graphics adapter
Optical Storage
CD / DVD type: CD-ROM
CD / DVD read speed: 48x
Optical storage interface type: IDE
Storage Hard Drive
Hard drive interface: ATA-100
Hard drive size: 40 GB
Hard drive type: Standard
Spindle speed: 7200 rpm
Interface Provided
Interface: 4 x USB, 2 x PS/2, 1 x Ethernet, 1 x VGA, 1 x Audio in, 1 x Audio out/Headphone, 1 x Microphone in
Connector Type: 4 pin USB Type A, 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15), Mini-phone 3.5 mm, Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm, RJ-45
Audio Output
Audio output form factor: Integrated
Audio output type : Sound card
Cache Memory
Cache: 512 KB L2 cache
Cache per processor size: 512 KB
Miscellaneous:
Compliant standards: ACPI, EPA Energy Star
Features: Wake on LAN, USB port control, Power-on password, Thermal monitoring, Memory change alert, Administrator password, Serial port I/O control, Parallel port I/O control, Power Factor Correction (PFC)
All of these specs of the hardware are standard and many other computers, nearly all have these particular hardware attributes or better so these allows me to efficiently make a database and enter data as quickly as I want also as the company will buy better computers which are capable of doing this and much more so this will be much more sufficient.
The hardware available at the end-users company is as follows:
The company actually doesn’t have computers at the moment but this is what they will be buying.
Pentium 4 processor
DVD/CDRW with floppy disk drives.
Input Devices
Keyboard-to enter information in databases and/or other applications.
Mouse-to click on various buttons to do what you want.
Output Devices
Printer Brother Laser jet HL – 1870N-to print out any information needed in hard copy.
Processor
Clock speed: 3.6 GHz
Processor type: Intel Pentium 4
Installed processor qty: 1
Max supported processor qty: 1
RAM
RAM installed: 512 MB
Max supported RAM: 4 GB
Memory specification compliance: PC2700
Memory speed: 677 MHz
RAM form factor: DIMM 184-pin
RAM technology: DDR SDRAM
RAM upgrade rule: Max 2 x 1 GB module
Storage Hard Drive
Hard drive interface: ATA-100
Hard drive size: 60 GB
Hard drive type: Standard
Spindle speed: 7800 rpm
Cache Memory
Cache: 512 KB L2 cache
Cache per processor size: 512 KB
Software
The software available at Hornsey School for Girls are:
Database programs: Microsoft Access 2003
Spreadsheet programs: Microsoft Excel 2003
Word processing Software for the report and input (data capture) forms:
Notepad or Microsoft Word 2003
Paint program used for cut and paste for the report and user guide etc.:
Windows Paint
The software available at the end-users company are:
Database programs: Microsoft Access 2003
Spreadsheet programs: Microsoft Excel 2003
Word processing Software for the report and input (data capture) forms:
Notepad or Microsoft Word 2003
Paint program used for cut and paste for the report and user guide etc.:
Windows Paint
Users IT skills and knowledge
The user in the company of Games 4 You will be staff and the managers, at the moment the managers and staff do not have enough computer skills to properly and efficiently use the system I will be producing in database form, so the workers skills are at novice level and a couple at intermediate, those are the staff that use IT at home for leisurely purposes but the rest of the staff do not use IT in their daily life at all. The staff will need some IT training before they use the DBMS (Database Management System) for themselves, the company has the sources and funding for this training which they will have completed before the finish of the database system I am working at.
Comparison of alternative solutions
The RDBMS (Relational Database Management System) that I will be using is Microsoft access as it is the most common application companies use for database related queries. I could also use Microsoft excel which is a spreadsheet programme which allows you to store information in tables and graphs but compared to Microsoft access the database programme it is not as useful as access because in excel you can not find a particular piece of information by filtering all information within the table to pinpoint a particular needed information, this ability of the access being able to do this makes it a much more favourable application to use also you can create queries and forms for even quicker access to particular information needed. Another application that could be used is Microsoft word this also allows you to make tables even if not nearly as good as access, word allows you to be more flexible with e.g. the font size or colour but on word you are not able to pull out needed small parts of information which means you have to scroll and find the information your looking for manually as in access it is easy even for a novice to extract parts of information after the forms and queries have been done.
Justification of chosen solution
For my RDBMS (Relational Database Management System) I have chosen to use Microsoft access this is because it is very efficient and easy to use also lots of other companies use this application so in a scenario where a table from the database needs transport to another computer, that computer is more likely to have Microsoft access on it other than e.g. paradox or oracle. The computers in the company Games 4 You will have them all networked so that if any data is added, changed or deleted all database tables will have the same affect and the changes will be seen on all computers this is very efficient as well because if the computers where not networked information that is added, needs updating or deleted will be have to done on every computer in the company separately and there will be times where some computers aren’t up to date so it will be inconsistent.
