DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A SOFTWARE BASED STUDENTS BURSARY AWARD PROCESSING SYSTEM (A CASE STUDY OF UDI LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, UDI)
ABSTRACT
Technology has proved beyond all reasonable doubt that compt4er technology application could remove the strenuous burden of paperwork which has been affecting the Bursary award system of Udi local government. The accumulated files and other documents make collection and disbursement of finance tedious and cumbersome when processed manually, after much observation on the activities of the students’ bursary award system… (Scroll down for the link to get the Complete Project Material)
INTRODUCTION
In large organization such as Udi local government or Ogebe-Ogene local government, the finance and account system is the life wire of the administration. In other words, it is the process of controlling finance of the establishment with the aim achieving the following:
- To reduce errors in the computation of the students’ bursary award system.
- To process payroll data.
- To control salary and wage expenses, which is the main aim of establishing the finance and account section of Udi local government council.
Failure in achieving these objectives will be a very big set back to the organization. Some of these outlined objectives above are difficult to achieve even though the organization is equipped with officers of higher integrity, many times, manual accounting is bound to undergo series of set back either during processing or outputting storage or both.
This calls for the design of an efficient and effective system that will go as far as achieving this set-out objective as mentioned above.
Statement Of The Problem
The problem of using a manual system in the finance and account section of the bursary department results in the inability of the bursary staff to process documents on time and the difficulty in achieving an accurate result which is contrary to the use of an automated bursary award processing system…. (Scroll down for the link to get the Complete Project Material)
Research Objectives
The purpose of this study is as follow-
- To demonstrate the capabilities of computer
- To explore the intricacies associated with software design… (Scroll down for the link to get the Complete Project Material)
LITERATURE REVIEW
The bursar system has been defined as the process of monitory the funds of an organization. The Udi local government bursar system is as old as the Ojebe-Ogene local government. It was established to maintain and control the collection and disbursement of the Udi local government fund and to help the students in their studies by giving them a bursary award. It also helps the student to read their book and help the week once to weeks up in their studies.
Peter (1979) defined bursary as a means of helping the poor but, intelligent people that are willing to go to school. bursar award is meant to help students in many ways, especially the intelligent ones, and some students that are not hard-working it gives them the courage to read very hard in order to get their own share in the bursar award.
It also creates a challenge in the must of the students. Because everybody will be reading very hard in order to get the bursary award… (Scroll down for the link to get the Complete Project Material)
DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS OF THE EXISTING SYSTEM
The bursary department is a sub-Unit of the Udi local government (UDI) Enugu. and it is divided into various sections among which is the finance and account section (operating as one unit) and our area of concentration or study is the bursar award processing system software.
The UDI bursary and account system software which has been defined as the process of monitoring the fund of the local government. It was established to maintain, control, collect the Udi local government fund, and to help students of that local government through the bursar award processing system.
FACT FINDING METHODS USED
The fact-finding methods used in the project are the observation technique and the interview method.
OBSERVATION METHOD
This is one of the frequently used methods of obtaining information. In the observation method, the researcher visits the scene of activity and notes down every aspect of the activities relevant to the objectives. The observation techniques is one of the methods applied in this research. The researcher was taken round the bursary department by the bursary staff of which I observed the activities going on in the bursary and how the bursar award process is being done.
INTERVIEWING PHASE (ORAL)
This is the frequently used method of collecting, the necessary information. In an interview, there is the need for a check-list or questionnaire, this help to;
- Ensure that interview is carried out in a well-organized manner.
- Achieve the objectives of the system under study.
- Get the maximum of information in the minimum time.
OBJECTIVES OF THE EXISTING SYSTEM
The objectives of the existing system are as follows: (Scroll down for the link to get the Complete Project Material)
DESIGN OF NEW SYSTEM
System is the tasks of structuring the system under study following detailed specifications of the processing requirement such as input, output master files, and segmentation of those processing programs. The result of system designing is a series of documents from which the programmer can work.
The objective of the system design is to produce a system that:-
- meet the user’s requirement
- conforms to the specifications and boundaries established during the data collection phase.
- making the best use of hardware and software available.
- is as simple as possible for a human to operate and use.
- can be implemented economically and easily maintained and amended.
In this design, there are seven major activities involved, although these are further divided into simpler forms for easy manipulation… (Scroll down for the link to get the Complete Project Material)
OUTPUT SPECIFICATION AND DESIGN
The output may be printed matter, graphs, video mages, sounds, and punches on type or cards or magnetized areas on tapes or cards or disks. Data output devices may be classified as hard copy or soft copy (hard and software).
Hard copy output devices generated a permanent physical copy or printout of the data that may be filed, duplicated, mail, etc. soft copy output device provides only a temporary copy of the output data. Computer systems software often includes a combination of hard and soft (hard and software) copy output devices that can be switched on and off as the program required… (Scroll down for the link to get the Complete Project Material)
INPUT SPECIFICATIONS AND DESIGN
The function of the computer system software is to convert data into a form that can be processed by the central processing unit. Data input machines translate the holes in paper tape or card, the areas on tape, or the optical mages on forms into direct-current pulses.
The electronic pulses train software. These pulses are routed to the CPU through a system software of buffers, control units, and channels. Data may be routed directly to the CPU for immediate input and processing… (Scroll down for the link to get the Complete Project Material)
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SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
This is categorized into:
- Training and educational personal
- Approaches to educate and train personnel
- Testing the system
- Approaches to system conversion
Training and Education Personnel
This has to do with the training or education of the organizational personnel on the efficiency and effective use of the new system. the type of personnel requiring this training is the users of information, the operating personnel of the bursary and account section of the department of Udi local government area (LGA) Enugu.
Approaches to Educate and Training Personnel
This has to do with the techniques applied in educating or training the system users. The various approaches to be applied are.
- Seminars: this allows the analyst to reach many people at a time.
- Procedural Training: This provides an individual with written procedures, describing his or her activities as the primary method of learning… (Scroll down for the link to get the Complete Project Material)
TESTING THE DATA
This has to do with examining the system to verify or serve the purpose for which is recommended for this system are:
- Simulated Logical Testing
This refers to the programmer or analyst testing the system by tracing through the programmer(s) or system with a mental representation of a transaction. This can be called desk checking.
- System Conversion
The term conversion is used to describe the process of changing from one way of doing things to another. It describes the changing of specific activities relating to collecting, storing, retrieving and processing data, and the deporting of information… (Scroll down for the link to get the Complete Project Material)
DOCUMENTATION
The entire program is developed through procedural steps. The steps taken were actually guided upon by experience and reference operational guides are provided to help anybody to start and run the program, even a novice in computer if authorized. The program for the new system is developed in Qbasic language. The language is used for it’s generality and flexibility.
OPERATION GUIDE
The system was menu-driven, the menu options guide the users on every need to run the system effectively.
The following steps should be taken.
- Power on the system (Booting)
- Insert the diskette containing the software.
- Load the Qbasic interpreter (stepped)… (Scroll down for the link to get the Complete Project Material)
RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION
Recommendation
For the research, we recommend parallel conversion or change over. The reason for this is that it provides high degree of protection to the organization from a failure in the new system. However, for the effectiveness of this change over there are other tasks that must be accomplished.
They include the following:-
- Installation of air condition for the coding chop
- Training of users of the system as earlier mentioned a provision of rug to guide against breakage of the computer and its parts. For example, if the computer system falls down accidentally on the rug, there will be no breakage.
- Installation of stabilizer and uninterrupted power supply (UPS)… (Scroll down for the link to get the Complete Project Material)
Conclusion
Knowing quite well that computerization of a student-based bursary award processing system software requires human and financial resources, the implementation process has to be a contribution effort for it to be successful. The formal method (manual) of students based bursary award system was found to be associated with many irrelevancies, delays on the students’ part, stress, or the workers’ side; on ineffective thorough an examination on this problem has called for the heed to computerize the system. However, this was done by designing software, the software so designed is been tested and found to have to put an end to these problems.
REFERENCES
Agu Sunday C. (1983) Business Accounting 1 frank wood, west Africa. 2nd edition page122-124. (Software)
Oliver E.C (1986). The pemguim dictionary of Economics frank wood, south Africa 3rd edition page 140-148. (Software)
Onya J.O. (1982). Bursary system Toronto South 4th edition page 40-48. (Software)
Richard W. Brightman Payment process system P.P.S Published (1997) Swize wood first edition page 1-4. (Software)…
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