For my project I will be designing a new database for a mail order company called SPANK MY MONKEY Skateboards (TM) selling skateboards and skateboard accessories.

28 April, 2007 Steven Bell

Analysis

Introduction:

For my project I will be designing a new database for a mail order company called SPANK MY MONKEY Skateboards ™ selling skateboards and skateboard accessories. Mr. Pearce the company director has asked me to design and make a new computerised database system to replace their old paper based system. My database will deal with stock control, budget and customer details in an incorporated package. At present their system consists of many pieces of paper in a file cabinet, in a kind of box card format. The problems with this system are:

New records that are made take ages to create;
Records that need to be changed or updated take a long time;
It is hard to know if you have a particular item in stock;

It is quite unreliable due to human error and customers sometimes get the wrong items;
Records get lost;
Records get misfiled.

User Requirements:

Mr. Pearce has requested that the system I design will have:

Details of customers;

Details of past sales;
Details of the current stock;
Current cost value of stock;
Weekly and daily printouts of stock and stock value overviews;
A function that notifies him of when the stock of a particular item is running low;
A dispatch note that goes on the product to notify the deliverers where to deliver the package to;
A function that backs up the data instantly, no data can be lost;
A printout of customer invoices;

And finally rectify the problems that are listed above,
Auto-update all records when something is changed.

Initial Investigation:

I had an interview with Mr. Pearce and interviewed the workers who operate the phones etc. I also gave them all a questionnaire to do, so I can find out there wants and needs for a new system. Whilst I was at there I asked for a copy of there stock and customer records and get a sample of one of there customer records, stock records, invoices, order records and receipts etc.

The relationship between the card index ...

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And finally rectify the problems that are listed above,
Auto-update all records when something is changed.

Initial Investigation:

The relationship between the card index system and the database I will produce is that some of the data that the company currently holds may be redundant. E.g. if someone hasn’t ordered with the company for a year then it is unlikely that they will order again so this information can be deleted. Also if the information is going on a computer database it will need to be secure and safe under the data protection act rules, like having passwords etc. Also on the card index system there may be less information on the card and so on my database I will have some of the fields left blank, but this will be updated as people order more products on the new system.

Volume of data:

On the system there are already roughly 500 customers this can be cut down because the majority of these customers have just ordered once and there details are no longer relevant. Also there are about 100 products that are sold through this company. All this information will need to be copied onto the new system so will need to take a copy of the customer and stock details from the company.

Hardware and Software:

Mr. Pearce has just bought some new PC’s especially to run this new system, he has 5 new PC’s all with a specification of:

Hardware:

Pentium II processor at 450MHz
64 MB of RAM
12GB Hard Drive
TNT2 Graphics Card
52x Speed CD-ROM Drive
3.5” Floppy Disc Drive
Logitech Wheel Mouse
Hot Keys Keyboard
Ethernet Card 10/100

Software:

Microsoft Office 97’ for Businesses, includes;

Word
Excel
Access
Outlook Express
Internet Explorer

Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition

Also these computers will have to be networked so that if someone on one computer has a order for a product and it’s the last of that item and another person tries to order the same product. As the computers are networked then it will update the tables and the other person will not be able to order that item.

Objectives of the new system:

The objectives of my system can be split up into two different categories qualitative (ideas) and quantitative (actions). The basic objectives are that is must be faster than the paper/computer based one at current and change it all to a computerised integrated system to make it as quick as possible (quantitative). The data must be more accurate; the old system had some mistakes in it that must be sorted out and my system will be using formulas etc. to reduce the risk of human error (quantitative), by putting it all in the same package and as its on computer it reduces the chance of human error. It has to be eye catching and interesting to the user because its likely that people are going to be looking at it and using quite a lot and if its just plain then they are going to get quite bored and fed up with it (qualitative). It must be easy to use and understand quite complicated functions of the system, the people who use are good with IT but still find it quite hard and a time taking affair. Also some people who are not so good with IT will be looking at it and will find it very difficult with the old system (qualitative). The new system will have to be compatible with the IT department’s hardware and software, so they can actually use the system. It would be useless if it could not be used on their machines (quantitative).

Performance Indicators:

The following performance indicators will be used:

Data that is entered has to be made simple to input and very accurate
Its shouldn’t take more than 30 seconds to input data and update the whole system for each bit of data
To be able to add new product data with ease
For everything to be integrated into one package and for everything to be linked for easy updating
For the whole program to be customised for the users preference and to reduce the chance of error
It should be simple and easy to use and do advanced functions even for the most basic user, and just to make life easier for the advanced user
It should be impossible to accidentally delete important formulae etc.
It should fit on a floppy disc of 1.44 MB.

The Current System:

At the moment there audit and budget system is quite basic, some of the information that has been inserted is incorrect due to human error, some the information is quite hard to understand and it’s not very fast or easy to find something. The advantages of putting it together into one easy database system:

This will greatly improve the speed of the system e.g. when your searching through a wad of paper for one particular bit of data it may take a few minutes. If this information was inputted in my spreadsheet it may take only a few seconds to find that data, this makes the new system a lot easier to use.