NEW!! Update of A2 Computing Project Now on Scribd!

New! With *Design Testing* and *Updated Diagrams*!

Link To *UPDATED PROJECT*

The Student Form

This screen will be shown in Access after the ‘OK’ button is clicked on the dialog box. As shown in Fig. B3, all of the tables are linked through the unique ID’s created by Access when records are created. In this form, students can be browsed, and the details for each of the things that the student is linked to can be viewed.

Validation of this form:

• Student ID - Must be text and less than 30 characters
• First Name - Must be text and less than 20 characters
• Last Name - Must be text and less than 20 characters
• Email - Must be less than 30 characters
• Grad Year - Must be above 2010
• House - Must be one of the specified choices

For your listening pleasure

Start Screen Form Design

2nd Interview Questions

As a result of my research I have come to the conclusion that the new locker system will be created either by a php/sql online database, or a Microsoft Access database.

Do you know what a PHP/SQL database is?

Would you be comfortable using an online PHP/SQL database?

Would you be comfortable using a Windows computer or using Bootcamp on your current Mac computer?

Do you know what a Microsoft Access Database is?

Would you be comfortable using one?

After reading the system requirements would you be comfortable if the suggested system was implemented?

If not, why?

Do you think anything should be added to the requirements?

Do you think any sort of changes need to be made before I begin the design of this project?

Do you think that an automated email component in this system would work?

Which priority would be the most important, ranking from 1 to 3, the student being a boarder, the cost of the instrument, or the size of the instrument?

Requirements Specification Part Two: Diagrams

A2 IT Requirements Spec Part One

Requirements Specification of the System

List of tasks

All the tasks in this process are handled and completed by Mrs Thompson.

At the beginning of the school year, Mrs Thompson deletes all of the names in the locker word document, un-assigning all of the students from the locker system.

Then Mrs Thompson sends out a notice to all students, asking students to see her in her office if they would like a locker. It is currently on a first come, first served basis. If there are still lockers remaining after the beginning of the first week of Term 1, the locker assignment again runs on a first come first served basis for the rest of the year until all of the lockers are being used by students.

As a result, the new system needs to:

1. At the beginning of the year, un-assign all students and instruments from their respective lockers.
2. Send out a notice by electronic mail to all students, reminding them to sign up for a new locker if they want one.
3. When the user inputs the data of the students, the system will assign the students with the highest priority to lockers. The other students who have the least priority and are not chosen by the system will not receive a locker.
4. Those students who have been assigned lockers will be sent an e-mail saying that they have been assigned to a locker, and the details of the code of the locker and where it is located.

The new list of tasks will look like this:

1. Clear all student assignments of lockers at the beginning of the year. Automated by the system.
2. Send out e-mail to all students, prompting them to give their details to Mrs Thompson if they would like a locker.
3. Mrs Thompson will then input all of the data given by students into the system.
4. System calculates who is assigned to a locker, determined by the new priority system being introduced.
5. Email is sent to students who have received lockers this year, along with details such as the code of the locker.

Field lists

Mrs Thompson gets the students’ details from the students themselves, when they go to see her at the start of the year to apply for a locker. The info she gets is the student’s name, their house, year group, what band they are in, and which instrument they play.

In the new system the fields that need to be filled in are:

• Name of student
• House
• Year Group
• Whether they are a boarder or day boy (which is determined by the ‘house’ field)
• Which instrument they play
• Cost of instrument
• Which school music groups they are in
• Which locker they are assigned to
• The code of the locker

Calculations and Decisions

Since the current ‘first come, first served’ system is not a satisfactory system for the current locker system, a priority system for students needs to be introduced. Cost of instrument, size of instrument, and whether the student is a boarder have been identified as areas which rules must be established.

As a result, the new system needs to be able to:

• Calculate priorities for students who have large instruments
• Calculate priorities for students who have expensive instruments
• Have priority for students who are boarders at the College

The system will sort through the entries which will be entered by the user. This way, the students who need the lockers the most will be assigned lockers, and the rest of the students who have signed up and are not of high enough priority will not have lockers.

Extra wants

Mrs Thompson wants the locker system to be integrated with the synergetic school attendance system and the school library system. However, I have looked into this possibility, but it seems extremely unnecessary to integrate these systems, as the systems used at the College are of a totally different nature to the one that will be designed. It is also very difficult to integrate these systems as I do not know the level of programming and the language used by the programmer who coded the library and the synergetic attendance system used by the college.

A2 Computing Interview

What does the music department do at the school?

Apart from the academic teaching of music, it provides instrumental tuition for 360 students, provided by 22 outside teachers. And it runs the concert band, the jazz band, the chapel choir, King’s Voices, and any other small music group in the school.

What is your role in the music department, Mrs Thompson?

I am the music administrator, so i mainly run the music lessons and the music roster for students, but I also run the lockers, the hire of music instruments. We have 3000 bits of music at the moment and the rest is not on the computer yet, so there are millions to go.

What tasks that you currently perform in the music department are time consuming and in need of a new system?

The lockers. As well as the bass, amps and the leads.

Of these tasks, which could be sped up with the aid of a computer system?

Absolutely. Actually i am using the same program as the library to manage the sheet music for the choir and to manage all the instruments, it is a huge job but that is actually quite helpful, the lockers - I also use synergetic a lot to manage the groups, the glee club, the bagpipes, but the lockers do not fit into those. If the lockers could be integrated either synergetic or into the school library system that would be better than having an extra system on top of it.

What is the worst part of the task?

It takes me usually 30 minutes to explain how to use a lock to a Year 9 boy, but the other sort of step that gets left out in the process is that somebody gives up a lesson but I don’t get their hired instrument back, and it sits in the locker all day and so my lesson rosters, I need a way of knowing that the student who has dropped the lesson has a locker and a hired instrument, so I can free that locker up and give it to somebody else, or someone else will be missing out, so a tag system would be good.

Who is involved in the process?

Me. Just me, but it used to be Mr Sherwood and the other staff.

How are you involved?

In the whole process.

How much IT experience do you have?

Enough for the job, so, I’ve known the library program since it was invented, about 12 years ago, and synergetic. We’ve developed a few new extra things for the music department.

Are you familiar with Microsoft Access?

No, I’ve been using Mac since I started here.

What types of data are in the process?

I collect their name, their house, and whether they are in a band. So sometimes a person has got an instrument hired and they are in the concert or jazz band, but I haven’t realised that they have left the bands in which case I don’t take any steps to cancel their locker and retrieve their instrument, so thats the biggest sort of gap in the tagging.

Would you introduce recording the serial number, or year group?

I suppose you could use the student number, but I don’t need that. Certainly when I’m using synergetic or the library program, that would be using the student number, so that would be a way of integrating the new system with those.

Where do you get the information from?

From the students themselves. Although I get the information for which band they are in from synergetic because I’ve logged that information there, but often I don’t know when they have left the band that they are in.

How do you store this information currently?

In a Word Document and a folder. I’ve had a breakthrough, so I keep the number of the lock and the code in a document so I can still get in even if the lock is moved. I’ve tried numbering them but that didn’t work.

Are you comfortable with a computer system being used to process these tasks?

Absolutely, I’d look forward to it.

What operating system do you run and what version?

No. Well I will let you have a look. Version 10.5.8.

Do you have Microsoft Office, and if so, which version?

Version 11.4.2 Microsoft Word 2004 for Mac.

How many lockers are there in the system at the moment?

I’ve never counted them because I’ve never numbered them. But there are one hundred and one.

Is the locker system full?

Not quite, but some boys were supposed to see me today to get lockers.

If a priority system was to be introduced, how would priority be decided, for example year group?

At the moment the boarders are given priority over day boys and the day boys would use the day storeroom, and take their instruments home, but the year group priority would be obsolete.

What about cost of instrument?

Actually that makes sense, and the other consideration is size, and we don’t have many cello lockers, and also height, and they have to be given to a specific locker.

A2 Computing Intro

Description of the organisation

The Music Department at King’s College has a locker system, where students who play musical instruments can apply for a locker, so that they can store their instruments and keep them safe during or after school hours. Students at King’s are sorted into 11 houses. The organisation of the ‘music lockers’ are handled by Mrs Thompson, the assistant to the Head of the Music Department. They are interested in introducing a priority system in the lockers which will improve the current system, because some students with very expensive instruments did not get assigned to a locker through the current system.

Methods currently in use

If a student wants to apply for a ‘music locker’, they will go to Mrs Thompson, who will type their details into a Microsoft Word document, and then look at a sheet of paper with the locker numbers and combinations on it so she can give them the combination to a locker which is not currently in use. In this case, instrument serial number is not recorded. Each student is then written in the Microsoft Word document next to their current locker. The current system is on a first come first served basis.

Origin and form of the data used

The information comes from the student applying for the locker, who will give Mrs Thompson their names, houses, which instrument they play, and year group. The lockers’ info are on pieces of paper, which shows the locker number and each lockers has its own unique combination.

System Requirements

The system will require a Windows computer running at least Windows XP, with Microsoft Office 2010 installed on it.