DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF STUDENT ACCOMMODATION (BENCHMARK STUDENT PAD) APPLICATION
ABSTRACT
This project is aimed at developing a web application for student accommodation. It allows students to choose and book a room of their choice. Research was carried out through reviewing similar existing applications, observations, interviewing people who might want to use the application and project-related articles. The ideas obtained from reviewing other similar applications were used in building the application. Agile methodology was used to build the app. The project was implemented using the Visual Studio IDE. This project has gone smoothly and the major part of all its functionalities have been implemented.
Table of Contents
DECLARATION.. iii
CERTIFICATION.. iv
APPROVAL.. v
DEDICATION.. vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.. vii
LIST OF TABLES. viii
LIST OF FIGURES. ix
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. x
ABSTRACT.. xi
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.. 1
1.1 Overview.. 1
1.2 Background and Motivation.. 1
1.3 Statement of the Problem.. 1
1.4 Aim and Objectives. 2
1.5 Significance of the Project. 2
1.6 Project Risks Assessment. 2
1.7 Scope/Project Organization.. 5
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW… 6
2.1 Overview.. 6
2.2 Accommodation and its role for students. 6
2.3 Historical Overview.. 7
2.4 Related Work. 8
2.4.1 Wracehall accommodation. 8
2.4.2 Baze University Hostel 8
2.4.3 Uni-places. 8
2.5 Summary.. 9
CHAPTER 3: REQUIREMENTS, ANALYSIS AND DESIGN.. 10
3.1 Overview.. 10
3.2 Proposed Model. 10
3.3 Methodology.. 10
3.4 Data gathering techniques. 12
3.4.1 Interviews. 12
3.4.2 Observations. 12
3.5 Requirements Specifications. 12
3.5.1 Functional Requirement 12
3.5.2 Non-Functional Requirement Specifications. 13
3.5.3 Hardware requirements. 13
3.5.4 Software requirements. 13
3.6 System Design.. 14
3.6.1 Application Architecture. 14
3.6.2 Use Case. 15
3.6.3 Activity Diagrams. 19
3.6.4 Sequence Diagram.. 20
3.6.5 Dataflow Diagram.. 21
3.6.6 Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD). 22
3.6.7 User Interface Design. 23
3.7 Summary.. 26
CHAPTER 4: IMPLEMENTATION.. 28
4.1 Introduction.. 28
4.2 System Implementation.. 28
4.3 Testing.. 29
4.3.1 Test Plans. 30
4.3.2 Unit and integration testing. 32
4.3.3 Test Case Procedures. 33
4.3.4 Traceability Matrix. 35
4.3.5 Test Report Summary. 36
4.4.1 How the errors were corrected. 38
4.4.2 Unresolved errors. 39
4.5 User Guides. 39
4.6 Summary.. 39
CHAPTER 5: EVALUATION, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 40
5.1 Introduction.. 40
5.2 Evaluation of the Software. 40
5.2.1 Objective viewpoint through testing. 40
5.2.2 Subjective viewpoint through an appraisal of what has been achieved. 40
5.2.3 Future Enhancements. 40
5.3 Conclusion.. 41
5.3.1 Project achievements. 41
5.3.2 Current situation regarding the project 41
5.4 Recommendations. 41
5.6 Summary.. 41
REFERENCES. 43
APPENDICES. 45
Appendix A: Work plan.. 45
Appendix B: Gantt chart. 47
Appendix C: Proceedings of Interview.. 48
Appendix D: Observations conducted.. 49
Appendix E: User Guide. 50
Appendix F: Codes. 52
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Overview
1.2 Background and Motivation
In our current era of automated systems with it being either software or hardware, it’s not advisable to be using a manual system. Student accommodation without a management system is usually done manually. Registration forms verification to other data-saving processes are done manually and most at times, they are written on paper. Thus, a lot of repetitions can be avoided with an automated system. The drawbacks of existing systems lead to the design of a computerized system that will help reduce a lot of manual inputs. With this system in place, we can improve the efficiency of the system, thus overcome the drawbacks of the existing manual system.
This system is designed in favor of the accommodation management which helps them to save the records of the students about their rooms and other things. It helps them from the manual work from which it is very difficult to find the record of the students and the information about those ones who had left years before. This application gives an idea about how a student and fee details, room allocation, are maintained in a better way. The accommodation management application will also contain special features like how many students are in a room, student’s id and free rooms or space available. The administration has a unique identity for each member as well as students’ details.
Accommodation business is an emerging business in today’s world. Having a child starting university away from home can be a daunting thought, which is why motivated this study.
1.3 Statement of the Problem
There are a lot of drawbacks to keeping and maintaining a student accommodation. Especially with a manual system. Since most student accommodation is being run by only one administrator, the number of students in a room is sometimes not known by the administrator. She has to go room by room to ensure that a room is occupied or not. Sometimes people may be owing in the accommodation and they are saved on papers or huge notebooks, and sometimes receipts. If the books should go missing or stolen, one would never be able to know if a student is owing or not. Room allocation also becomes a problem as the administrator might not know which rooms are available or not. And some accommodation has a lot of rooms or have mare blocks and it would be very tedious to go through all blocks in search of a free room for an applicant. Also, the administrator might not know the number of students in a room or know if a room is full or not.
1.4 Aim and Objectives
The Major aim and objective of this project are to discover the following:
- To enable a student to choose and book their room type.
- To allow admin to assign room and maintenance.
1.5 Significance of the Project
The implementation of this project has the potential to benefit primarily, Student accommodation owners and Student. The Student accommodation application would help in overcoming the issues faced when using a manual approach. The study will be of great importance to students because it is a direct channel to reach the administrator.
Furthermore, the application not only provides a platform to choose and reserve room conveniently but also works as a solution for better accommodation. This application provides an easy and efficient way of attracting a new applicant.
1.6 Project Risks Assessment
You do risk analysis for only one reason: Would you manage the project differently if any of your risks happened? I especially look for risks that could put us out of business or prevent us from good management.
- Risks to getting the project completed.
- Risks to the Student privacy and data.
- Risks to accommodation safety.
- Risks to poor maintenance.
Then you make plans to deal with the risks you never want to work out as expected. In this project, for example, the lack of the machine when it was needed would prevent them from doing load testing. How bad a problem is that?
Risk analysis can’t be exact. If it were exact, you’d be predicting the future. But having a place to start the discussion about what the problem is, and how it affects the project, is much better.
Table 1.1: Risk Assessment Matrix
| Identified Risk | Likelihood of Occurrence | Difficulty in time detection | Potential impact | Overall Risk to Project |
| Change of system requirement by the client | Medium | Medium | High | High |
| Developers need Hardware/Software requirements | Low | Low | Medium | Low |
| Exceeding Budget | Medium | Medium | Medium | High |
| Testing and Debugging of errors | Medium | Medium | Medium | Medium |
| Incompatible Technologies | Low | Medium | Medium | Medium |
| Integration of system modules | Low | Medium | Medium | Medium |
| Failure of server | Low | Medium | Low | Medium |
| Delay in Delivery of the overall system | Low | Medium | Low | Low |
Table 1.2: Risk Amendment Matrix
| Identified Risk | Preventive Action | Contingency plan | Trigger | Owner |
| Change of system requirement by the client | Agreement with client | Extra charge as compensation | Unambiguous Requirements | Miss Aisha |
| Developers need Hardware/Software requirements | Select the best available Hardware/Software components | Customization from owner | Performance of Hardware/Software could be degraded | Miss Aisha |
| Exceeding Budget | Cost monitoring | Request funds | Expectations to qualified deliverables | Miss Aisha |
| Testing and Debugging of errors | Qualitative and competent programmers/testers | Outsource and re-usage of components | System Complexity | Miss Aisha |
| Incompatible Technologies | Use compatible technologies | Stable framework | Deliverance of high technology system | Miss Aisha |
| Integration of system modules | Integration planed from early stages | Involve system testers in early stages | Improper integration plan | Miss Aisha |
| Failure of server | Backup system database regularly | Keep backup server ready as standby | Congestion of traffic and/or hacking activities | Miss Aisha |
| Delay in Delivery of the overall system | Set deadline | Increase working hours | Delay in deliverables | Miss Aisha |
SWOT Analysis
The SWOT analysis gives information that is useful to compare the accommodation capabilities, advantage and the disadvantage compared to the competitive environment in which it operates. It is an instrument in strategy formulation and selection.
Risks of this project are categorized as Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and threats.
Strengths: this will include the following
- To give a vigorous and credible platform to guarantee users satisfaction.
- To enable our system to go worldwide
Weaknesses: this will include the following
Create accommodation close to universities.
Opportunities: that may include:
- Large target market, students are seeking out affordable accommodation.
Threats:
- Similar software is available in the software market.
- System might not be fully used after implementation.
1.7 Scope/Project Organization
The project is organized into five chapters, the first being the Introduction. The first chapter introduces the entire project and gives a high-level description of the project in terms of the background to the study, the statement of the problem, its objectives and motivation, the significance of the study and the project risks assessment. The remaining chapters are organized as follows;
- Chapter 2: Literature Review – This focuses on the current knowledge including substantive findings, as well as the theoretical contributions to this project.
- Chapter 3: Methodology, Analysis and Design – This focuses on the choice of methodology, the requirements gathered, the analyst tools and the design.
- Chapter 4: Implementation – The implementation phase is all about coding and also the test carried out on the project with the result of each test case.
- Chapter 5: Evaluation, Conclusion and Recommendation – This chapter would conclude all that was gotten from the entire project work, the future recommendations and the project achievements.