System specification

GCSE ICT

Emma Smith Specification ICT Coursework

Specification

This shows my final system and what I would like it to be able to do.

The system will be successful if -

The interviews and research took place and were successful enough to uncover all the problems about the current system
The data collected can be analysed in detail so the current system can be completely studied
The system has some validation as the data is entered to help the new user understand it, and where they might have gone wrong – this limits the number of mistakes that can be made e.g. a multiple membership number would not be allowed by the system
The data structure has been carefully designed to accommodate all the data needed in the database e.g. if a field needed to be a ‘text’ field, with words no longer than ‘10’ letters long, the system will only allow text up to 10letters long – this will limit the amount of space the data can take up
The system can sort and search data easily so a particular customer or cd can be found quickly and easily - the staff can find a customer in the database if they have forgotten their membership number
The system can ‘link’ the data so that the staff can find out easily what customers have bought what cds
The system has a mail merge feature so that letters can be written containing data selected from the system e.g. the staff can write a letter about a particular type of music, the staff can find in the database the customers that are interested in that type of music and then they can mail merge the data about them into the letter i.e. name and address, so that the letter can be sent to them
All tables have key fields so that each record is unique and therefore easy to find, and cannot be duplicated
The databases have been created to store the information about customers, cds and orders efficiently
The way the data is entered should be consistent across all the tables i.e. the same font, colour etc.
Queries can be made to find the data that is needed for the mail merge, e.g. the queries are used to find out what members are interested in punk music and ska-punk music and their names, addresses, titles etc. and the letter can be sent to them telling them about the latest cds on offer for that type of music.

I would like my system to be able to have information on how to use it that is understandable and easy to access – this is so people who have never used the system before know how to use it by reading the information, or by using the system itself.

I would like my system to be -

User friendly
Easy to use
Presented effectively – a good understandable layout
Easy to understand – instructions that can be understood by first-time users

Member’s Table

For the membership table I want ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

I would like my system to be able to have information on how to use it that is understandable and easy to access – this is so people who have never used the system before know how to use it by reading the information, or by using the system itself.

I would like my system to be -

User friendly
Easy to use
Presented effectively – a good understandable layout
Easy to understand – instructions that can be understood by first-time users

Member’s Table

For the membership table I want –

To create a table in a database to store all the member’s information. It needs to contain these fields – Title Email Address

Name Cardholder Initials

Surname Card Number

Address Card Type

City Expiry Date

County Music Preference One

Post Code Music Preference Two

Telephone Number

All these fields essential because the information is needed to tell the company about the individual customer e.g. name, address etc. It will also be able to let the customer buy cds from the company, and it will also tell the company what types of music the customer is interested in.

To have all the number fields i.e. post code, telephone number, credit card number, credit card expiry date; to be entered using an input mask.
To have the fields title, credit card type, music preference one and two; to have a look-up wizard – this will save time in typing and there will be no mistakes in spelling.
All other fields will be text fields with different field lengths (field lengths are in place in order to save space and so that a name, or address can be no longer that the set number) –

Name – 20
Surname – 20
Address – 40
City – 20
County – 20
Email Address – 30
Card Holder Initials – 5

To be able to query the data so that the company can find a particular customer, and to speed up the process of ordering.
To have the membership number as a primary key, therefore this field will have no duplicate and will be unique. This will be the first field on the table and it will be sorted by membership number. I am going to use an auto number feature in this field so there is a logical order to the records as they are entered.

Cds Table