IMPLEMENTING USABILITY IN AN ONLINE HOSTEL BOOKING SYSTEM: A CASE OF KENYA METHODIST UNIVERSITY

BY

NTONGAI GLORIA KATHONI

(BIT-001-0194/2008)

A proposal for a Project to be Conducted in Partial Fulfilment of the

Requirements for the Degree in Bachelor of Science in Information Technology

Information Technology Department

Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology

2010

Supervisor:

Name...............................................................Signature.....................................................................

TABLE OF CONTENTSTABLE OF CONTENTS........................................................................................................ii

TABLE OF FIGURES:..........................................................................................................iii

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................4

1.0 BACKGROUND INFORMATION.............................................................................4

1.1 The Statement of the problem..............................................................................................4

1.2 The Objectives......................................................................................................................5

1.3 Research Questions..............................................................................................................5

1.4 Importance of the project......................................................................................................5

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY...................................................................................6

2.0 Structured System Analysis and Design Method................................................................6

2.1 Stages of Methodology...................................................................................................6

2.1.1 Feasibility study.....................................................................................................6

2.1.2 Requirements identification...........................................................................................6

2.1.3 Requirements specification and analysis.......................................................................6

2.1.4 Design...........................................................................................................................6

2.1.5 Implementation.............................................................................................................6

2.1.6 Testing...........................................................................................................................6

CHAPTER THREE: PROJECT TIME PLAN......................................................................7

3.1 Project Time Schedule...................................................................................................7

The table below outlines the activities of the second semester...................................................7

SECTION ONE....................................................................................................................10

4.1 System Resources...............................................................................................................10

4.1.1 Hardware Requirements..........................................................................................10

4.1.2 Software Requirements.........................................................................................10

SECTION TWO...................................................................................................................11

5.0 BUDGET AND BUDGET JUSTIFICATION...........................................................11

5.1 Projected Budget.................................................................................................................11

TABLE OF FIGURES:Figure 1:Gantt Chart.........................................................................................................................8

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1:Project Time Plan................................................................................................................7

Table 2:Budget Estimates...............................................................................................................10

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.0 BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Kenya Methodist University is one of the major higher learning institution in Kenya. It

began in 1997 as a theological college. It is situated in Meru . It has several campuses

affiliated to. The University offers several courses which include; Business Information

Technology, Nursing, Human resource, Theology, Education and counselling . As a

result it enrols a large number of students every year to take the different courses it offers.

It has over 4000 students and enrols about new 900 students every year.

1.1 The Statement of the problem

At the beginning of every academic year students are required to book rooms for their

accommodation. There is a system in place which is used to store information about the

students but the booking is done manually where students are required to fill given forms

so as to secure themselves rooms . This manual process is slow, inconveniencing and

tedious.. The problems associated with the current system are:

1. Time consuming; This is because a lot of time is taken by the students to fill the

forms and similarly more time is taken to verify that the correct details are filled

before a student is given a room and transferring information from the forms and

storing them in the system.

2. Congestion at the boarding offices and this causes occurrence of several errors in

the process and to correct such errors at a later time is costly and inconveniencing.

3. A lot of space is occupied by the storage of paper based files

Proposed solution

I therefore propose to come up with a system that enables students to book rooms via the

internet .This will involve coming up with a system whereby the student will be able to

acquire rooms without necessarily having to travel to school as long as the student has

access to the internet. The proposed project is aimed at increasing the efficiency and

effectiveness of booking rooms to the students.

1.2 The Objectives

1. To develop an online room booking system.

2. Research on how to implement usability in an online booking system.

3. To come up with a system documentation.

1.3 Research Questions

1. How can usability be implemented in an online booking system?

2. What are the design approaches and techniques that are used in designing and

implement usability in an online booking system?

1.4 Importance of the project

There is need to fully automate the system current in use. The aim of this project is

to come up with a system which will be efficient to the students as they can book rooms

online, from anywhere as long as there is access to internet. Hence the students do not

have to move up and down from one office to another so as to secure a room. The project

will be aimed at coming up with a usable system that is easier to learn to use so as to

satisfy the user’s needs and it will be more efficient in that less time will be taken to

accomplish the task and also reduce paper work hence it will help the University to cut on

cost spent on stationery.

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY

2.0 Structured System Analysis and Design Method

The methodology to be used in the development of the system is the Structured System

Analysis and Design Method which is a systems approach to the analysis and design of

information system. SSADM has a systematic and standard approach to analyse work and

changing phases for quality production and enhanced results. The major advantage of this

methodology is that the output of the previous phase is the input of the next phase. It will

involve the application of a sequence of analysis documentation and design tasks

involved in the following stages:

2.1 Stages of Methodology

2.1.1 Feasibility study

This stage will be concerned with the analysis of the current system and to determine

whether the proposed system is feasible. Feasibility study will put into consideration the

following areas and answer the underlying question in each area:

Technical feasibility: is the project technically possible?

Financial feasibility: How affordable is it to carry out the project?

Organizational feasibility: will the new system be compatible with the existing

practises?

Ethical feasibility: will the impact of the new system be socially acceptable?

2.1.2 Requirements identification

This stage will involve collection of requirements from the users through administering

questionnaires and conducting interviews on the users of the system. In this stage DFD’s

will be used to produce detailed logical models of the current system and they will be

refined to cater for the new and changed requirements.

2.1.3 Requirements specification and analysis

This will be concerned with definition of the new requirements. Detailed functional

requirements which are use cases that describe all the interactions with the software and

non-function requirements are identified and new techniques are introduced to define the

required processing.

2.1.4 Design

This is concerned with the physical and logical design of the system based on the analysis

of the identified user requirements so as to meet the needs of the users.

2.1.5 Implementation

This stage will be involved with writing of the actual code for the proposed project.

2.1.6 Testing

It will be concerned with giving the system to the user and they are allowed to interact

with it to find out if it meets the specified requirements.

CHAPTER THREE: PROJECT TIME PLAN

3.0 TIME PLAN

3.1 Project Time Schedule

The table below outlines how the activities will be carried out in the first semester indicating the

proposed start and end date of every activity .

S/

No

Activity Duration

(hrs)

Proposed

Start

date

Proposed

End date

Actual

start date

Actual end

date

Deliverables

1 Draft Proposal

writing

21 18/6/2010 1/7/2010 26/6/2010 02/07/2010 Draft Project

proposal document

2 Revising Draft

Proposal

15 4/7/2010 8/7/2010 07/7/2010 16/07/2010 Final Project

proposal

3 Literature Review 40 10/7/2010 29/7/2010 18/07/2010 Literature Review

report

Table 1:Project Time Plan for the first semester

Project Time Plan for second semester

The table below outlines the activities of the second semester

S/No

Activity Duration(hrs)

ProposedStart date

ProposedEnd date

Actual start date

Actual end date

Deliverables

4 Feasibility Study

45 1/8/2010 19/8/2010 RequirementSpecifications

5 Detailed Analysis and Design

34 23/8/2010 10/9/2010 Logical DesignStructure

6 System Coding and Testing

36 12/9/2010 5/11/2010 Running System units

7 BETA Release 32 6/11/2010 3/12/2010 Complete Running system

Table 2:Project Time Plan for Second Semester

TASK 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Feasibility study

Proposal Writing

Data collection

Data analysis

Literature review

Break

Requirement analysis

Logical Design

Physical Design

Design and Coding

Module testing

Integration and

Testing

Implementation

Documentation

Presentation

Figure 1:Gantt Chart

9

July SeptemberJune November -DecemberAugust

10

Gantt Chart

The Gantt chart above illustrates the steps that will be taken in the process of coming up with the

proposed system. The chart displays the activities that will be undertaken in each of the weeks

that will follow until the completion of proposed system. The purpose of the chart is to provide a

guideline into the steps and the time line required to produce a working system and an

accompanying documentation

11

SECTION ONE

4.1 System Resources

4.1.1 Hardware Requirements

Pentium 4 Dual-Core Computer to run the system and must have the following

requirements

80 GB hard disk for data storage

1 GB RAM for optimal system performance

Tape drives for regular backup and recovery operations

Laser jet Printer for printing of data reports.

An Uninterruptible Power Supply(UPS) to protect the system from power

interruptions.

Modem for connectivity to the internet

4.1.2 Software Requirements

Dreamweaver 8 for web development

Windows XP or higher operating systems

Wamp server.

MySQL Server for the database.

Flash media

Antivirus software for protecting the computer against threats such as

viruses.

12

SECTION TWO

5.0 BUDGET AND BUDGET JUSTIFICATION

5.1 Project Budget

Table 3:Budget Estimates

Note: The amounts indicated above are the approximate values of the resources but the

costs are subject to change in prices

13

S/

No.

Item Quantity Total (Kshs.)

1. Pentium IV-Dual

Core computer.2 80,000

2. Laser jet Printer 1 7,000

3. Uninterruptible

Power Supply(UPS)1 5,000

4. Printing

Papers(Reams)5 1,500

5. Optical

Discs(DVD)10 300

6. Tape Drives 3 4,500

7. miscellaneous 2,000

Total 98,300