Creating an Information Technology System for Chin Bookmakers Essay Example

Creating an Information Technology System for Chin Bookmakers Essay Example Creating an Information Technology System for Chin Bookmakers Essay Creating an Information Technology System for Chin Bookmakers Essay Chin Bookmakers is a small independent bookmakers situated on Eden Hill Road in Peterlee. They currently have a small manual credit account for giving credit, on bets, to customers. At present Chin Bookmakers have approximately thirty customers to whom they give credit. They would like to extend the number of customers they presently give credit to but the system they use is time consuming and prone to error. At present amount of credit given to customers has to be checked manually by employees. This means checking backlogs to ensure previous credit has been repaid. The bookmakers would like a computerised system that will allow them to check customers credit allowance quickly and ensure that the information is correct and kept up to date. Also they would like the system to produce charts and graphs to give an overview of credit given and credit repaid on a monthly basis. The Current System An employee of Chin Bookmakers was interviewed to ascertain the exact procedure for entering logs into the credit book. The following was recorded. The customer places a bet in the usual way and asks for the bet to put on his credit account. The customer must then produce a Credit Account Card, which has printed on their name, date of birth, and an account number given by the bookmakers. It has also a small photograph of the customer and signature. The employee must then check last bet placed, on credit, in the credit accounts book. If the customer has adequate credit left on his/her account the entry is logged and the amount they owe is then updated. They then receive their normal betting slip along side credits receipt. If the customer wishes to repay credit they simply produce their Credit Account Card with payment and the amount owed will be again updated. All credit given by the bookmakers must be repaid within 30 days of the bet being placed. Failure to do so will result in the customers credit being stopped and normally placed bets will also be stopped until credit has been repaid. Once all of the customers outstanding credit has been fully repaid the customers credit rating will be restored. Source Document 1: Invoice Objectives of the New System The owner, Mr Chin, would like the new system to perform the following functions: * Allow data from the customer (Credit Account Number, bet placed and value) to be recorded quickly and accurately. * Calculate amount owed by the customer automatically. * Check credit status of the customer before the bet is placed. * Produce monthly charts and summaries over the past year. * New users must easily grasp the system. Data Flow Diagram (Level 1) Current System Performance Indicators The following performance indicators are to be used: 1. The new system should enter new credit accounts quickly and efficiently. 2. It should take no longer than 60 seconds to enter each bet on credit. 3. Customers account status should be validated automatically. 4. Customers account balance should be updated automatically, accordingly. 5. Credit receipts should be printed out automatically after each bet has been confirmed. 6. It must be impossible to accidentally erase formula, headings, etc. 7. The system must easy to grasp for new employees. Hardware and Software Chin Bookmakers has a Pentium 333MHz PC with 32Mb of RAM and 3 GB hard disk. It currently has Windows 98 and Office 97 installed on this machine. A laser printer is used for receipts and hard copies. Development of the new system will be carried out mainly at a college network and partly on a standalone home PC similar to the one above. All files will need to fit on a 31/2 floppy disk for easy transportation between college and home. (They may need to be compressed). The college network stations are 600MHz Pentium PCs with 124Mb of RAM attached to a laser printer. There are user areas on hard disk, so students have the option of saving here or on to floppy disk. Users Skill Level Users of the system will include Mr Chin, the owner, and his three employees who receive the bets. Mr Chin is computer literate but may need to be shown how to use the new system. The employees of Chin Bookmakers already use excel to process the current cash in hand bets and should have no problem adjusting to the new system. Design Choice of Software This system will be implemented using Excel 97. This package is ideal as it includes many features which can be used in customising the application, such as: * Sophisticated report facilities with the ability to format text, set margins and page layout, import a company logo if desired and preview before printing. * Ability to protect worksheets and workbooks so that the user cannot accidentally destroy formulae or headings. * Formatting to help make it clear to the user where to enter data. * Macros to perform various automated functions. * Customised menus and toolbars. * Auditing tools to ensure that there are no errors in the workbook. Worksheet Design System Overview The system will be based around one workbook containing a database of customers with credit, one worksheet for adding new customers and a worksheet each for taking out and paying back credit into their accounts. The system will also automatically tell the user if the customer in question has adequate credit in his/her account, if not the user will be prompted with an error message. A level 2 data flow diagram of the system is shown below Detailed Design The Credit Book workbook. This will be the only workbook and will contain; * Menu * Customer Database * place bet and paying in sheets. Sheet1 Menu This sheet will act as the front end and will be selected automatically using an Autoexec macro when the workbook is loaded. It will have 5 options as follows. CHIN BOOKMAKERS Ltd Sheet2 Customer Database This is where all the customers will be kept on the system. It will include details about the customers and will laid out as follows. Information here will automatically be updated by other sheets in the work book. All cells will be protected to ensure information is not tampered with or so that cells and formulae are not accidentally erased.The sheet will be protected by a password known only to authorised employees. Sheet3 Place Bet This sheet is required to debit a customers account. The customers account no. is placed in the space provided and their details are automatically displayed. All cells are locked apart from the account no. section and bet amount section which are the only cells from which data is inputted. There is one command button: 1. Clear Form This will clear the form ready for the next ( Macro Clear Form) Sheet4 Credit Account This sheet will be used to pay cash into a customers account after they have ran out of credit or wish to top up their account. Again the customers account no. is entered and details are brought up from the customer table. All cells are locked apart from account no. and amount paying in. There are two command buttons: 1. Clear Form This will clear the form ready for the next ( Macro Clear Form) Macros The following macros will be used: Add New Customer Select Credit Book worksheet Unprotect Credit Book sheet Find END OF TABLE Insert a new line above END OF TABLE Select first cell above END OF TABLE Display customer name box Display customer d.o.b. box Display customer address box Display customer telephone box Display customer credit limit box Copy formula from cell H9 Find END OF TABLE Move 1 row up, six cells across and paste formula Copy formula from cell I9 Find END OF TABLE Move 1 row up, seven cells across and paste formula Find END OF TABLE Move up 1 row, add 1 to value already in cell Protect Credit Book sheet Unprotect sheet Unprotect active worksheet Protect sheet Protect active worksheet Clear Form Select cell G10 and clear contents Select cell G22 and clear contents Select cell G10Go to main menu Go To Place credit bet Select place credit bet worksheet Go to Paying in Select Paying In Worksheet Go to Credit book Go to Credit book worksheet Security All worksheets will be protected to prevent accidental alterations. However only the Credit Book will have a password attached as data should never be directly changed into the Credit Book. Other sheets will be easily unprotected. Test Strategy The Test Strategy will include: Unit testing to test each macro under different circumstances Systematically testing all menu buttons and functions Testing the effects of entering invalid and extreme data Mock entry of customer being added and placing bet End-User testing to establish whether system meets End-Users requirements Test Plan The following tests will be performed 1. Open program and test that main menu pops up first 2. Add a new customer into the Credit Book and ensure that formulas are correctly copied and that account numbers are automatically generated 3. Test go back to main menu button from credit book 4. Test placing a bet with the new customer and check bet has been added to the total amount owing 5. Test customer making payment and make sure amount owing has been subtracted correctly 6. Test exit button Test Data and Expected Outcomes Test 1 No test data Expect main menu to appear. Test 2 Michael Charlton, 08-2-84, 25 Pickard Close, Peterlee, SR8 5LZ, 0191 5862456, à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½200.00 Expect above data to be recorded into appropriate columns. Test 3 No test data Expect main menu to appear. Test 4 à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½50.00 Expect customers amount owing to change to à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½50.00 and customers credit left to change to à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½150.00. Test 5 à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½25.00 Expect customers amount owing to change to à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½25.00 and customers credit left to change to à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½175.00. Test 6 No test data Expect program to exit. Schedule of Activities Week Task Home/College Comment Find out users current system and establish requirements by interview, establish user skills, software and hardware. Home Analyses write up. College Design workbooks and data flow diagram. College Create menu and worksheet (for entering invoices not macros) prototype and show user. Home Continue writing up design section, including front-end menu, test plan, validation of data and macros. Home and College Implement the system. Home Test system; attempt installing on users PC. Home Get user to try out system to get feedback make, final modifications. College Write up technical manuals for user. Home Write Evaluation, finish all documentation, but a folder and hand in. College Implementation and Testing Commentary on Implementation Choice of project Mr Chin (the owner of Chin BookMakers) Suggested that they need a new system to keep track of credit bets and record customers details accurately. Since Mr Chin owned a computer in store I offered to devise a new system for him. I explained that it was for my AS Level project and he agreed to let me construct the new system. The project seemed adequate and should be completed within the allotted time. Initial Design Decisions My first decision was to create a large customer database to hold 100 customers. I asked Mr Chin about this and he said he wasnt sure how many customers he was planning to give credit to. I then decided to use an end of table line to add new rows as they were needed. I also decided to create an add new customer worksheet but thought it more convenient to scrap this and create a macro with the command button situated in the credit book work sheet. Final Design My final design is as shown in the design section, The adding of new customers is very simple with pop up boxes asking for all the information needed. It is a step by step process and any new user should be able to use it. Commentary on Testing Test 3 Test 4 Test 5 Test 6 Program successfully exited. Evaluation Looking back at the objectives and performance indicators the following have been achieved: 1. Trials showed that it took the user about 30 seconds to enter each new customer well within the 60 seconds allocated. 2. User Manual Introduction Installation Backups Adding a customer Placing a bet Paying in Exiting the Application Technical Manual Installing the System Macros 4 20 Michael Charlton