CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 OVERVIEW/BACKGROUND

Information today, are basic output for every organization or industry. Based on these information

decisions are being made, drawn and taken which will eventually lead to the growth, development or

downfall of the organization or industry. Decision goes a long way to assure a better competitive

advantage over other competitors and rivals in the industry.

Information should be processed efficiently and effectively with a high level of accuracy and

reliability with or without the presence of the processor (Human intervention or supervision).

Imagine a wrong, untimely decision for production was taken and in turn becomes unfavorable for

the organization, industry, market, consumers and even the suppliers. This though very little as it

sound but can bring to the downfall of the organization and making it loose its stand in the industry.

IT {Information Technology}, though without adding or providing a source of monetary returns

directly has been discovered to be very useful and beneficial to every organization today, since its

primary goal is to ensure efficient, reliable and consistency of processing information systems of the

organization. Though as engineers would say “The efficiency of a machine is never a 100%” but

computer processing has a high level of accuracy, reliability and performance when the right data are

fed into it. Today computer programs are built with a very high intelligence and can detect when a

wrong data is fed into it and possibly correct these data or mistake of the user without him knowing

or even aware of it thanks to artificial intelligence.

Taken a good study by observation, it is the primary aim and goal of every organization or

industry to meet the market demand and at the same time to maximize profit at minimal cost. Hence

an expert is hired to carry a good economic and analytical study for the organization. Some of these

activities include production, price and profit determination, cost and inventory control etc. but all

these system has problems and limitations. Imagine the expert not available due to illness and other

unforeseen circumstances; imagine the expert gives a wrong analysis, judgment and conclusion

because of emotional or psychological breakdown or wrong processing data; imagine the effect on the

organizations economic activities.

Information decision support system, an expert based system to be specific will help handle such

limitations. A decision support system is a way to model data and make quality decisions based upon

it. Making the right decision in business is usually based on the quality of your data and your ability

to sift through and analyze the data to find trends in which you can create solutions and strategies for.

DSS or decision support systems are usually computer applications along with a human component

that can sift through large amounts of data and pick between the many choices.

While many people think of decision support systems as a specialized part of a business, most

companies have actually integrated this system into their day to day operating activities. For instance,

many companies constantly download and analyze sales data, budget sheets and forecasts and they

update their strategy once they analyze and evaluate the current results. Decision support systems

have a definite structure in businesses, but in reality, the data and decisions that are based on it are

fluid and constantly changing.

The key to decision support systems is to collect data, analyze and shape the data that is collected and

then try to make sound decisions or construct strategies from analysis. Whether computers, databases

or people are involved usually doesn't matter, however it is this process of taking raw or unstructured

data, containing and collecting it and then using it to aid decision making.

The system P3{production, price and profit} and ART{Analytical reporting tool} [newly proposed

system] will improve and promote productivity, personal efficiency, revenue control, report

generation, economic analysis and just in time information for decision making so as to maximize

profit and minimize cost. The system can operate with minimal supervision and not necessarily

require an expert to operate it. A manual guide with complete documentation would assist on the

usage of the system.

1.1.1 Definition of Terms [P3]

This chapter gives the explanations of the term “Decision support system”, “P3” and “ART”. The

term “Decision support system” is used in a variety of ways and it encompasses all techniques

involving electronic support and equipment to making decisions. Decision Theory is a formal study

of the making of decisions. Real-life studies, which use surveys and experimentations, are called

descriptive decision theory; studies of rational decision making, which employ logic and statistics, are

called prescriptive decision theory. Such studies grow progressively more complex when more than

one person is involved, when outcomes of various options are not known with certainty, and when

even the probabilities of outcomes are unknown.

P3 – this involves Production, Price and Profit analysis. These are the primary aspect which the

research entails and Decisions are made on these aspects. Since these are the primary economic

activities the data collected for the analysis are stored and the inference engine uses these data to

deduce information on which decisions will be made.

ART – means Analytical reporting tool. It uses means of dedicated programs other controlled

supporting programs to make analysis and report generation. Authenticated Users of the program

with right privileges can use these programs to perform the function of the system. These data are

entered and after processing they are stored in the database, this will be the bases on which analysis

will be made and reports generated for future references.

1.2 THE RESEARCH CASE STUDY

Nice Cosmetics Nigeria Ltd

Nice cosmetics Nigeria LTD is a top leading manufacturing industry in Nigeria, Lagos state.

Manufacturing is the process of producing goods that are necessary for modern life from raw

materials. Previously, manufacturing was accomplished by hand, but most of today's modern

manufacturing operations are highly mechanized and automated. There are three main processes

involved in virtually all manufacturing operations: assembly, extraction, and alteration. Assembly is

the combination of parts to make a product for example an airplane is assembled when the

manufacturer puts together the engines, wings, and fuselage. Extraction is the process of removing

one or more components from raw materials, such as obtaining gasoline from crude oil. Alteration is

modifying or molding raw materials into a final product—for example, sawing trees into lumber.

The company was established and registered in May 2000. The company produces products ranging

from different body creams to soaps, facials, perfumes, body sprays etc. These products are

manufactured from raw materials supplied by major suppliers across the continent. The products after

manufactured are taken to the market for sales by major distributors and agents while some products

are left in the stock {inventory} for future demand and consumer want. The company determines

price, profit and production levels by analysis drawn by economic experts.

The economic experts draw the analysis from data collected from the sales department, consumer

feedback and consumer behaviour and observation, distribution and sales agent etc. Based on these

analysis decisions are taken for

a. What to produce

b. When to produce

c. For whom to produce

d. Price for product

e. Profit determination (product price – product cost) x Qty

1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT

The Nice Cosmetics employ or hire economic experts to make economic decisions for the company.

The cost of hiring though expensive but some little problem and limitations have been encountered. Due

to requirement gathering strategies and other fact finding techniques the following problems have been

observed. it is for these problem that is going to be solved with the proposed system or software that is

going to be developed.

1. timeliness of information processing and report

2. accuracy for analysis calculations

3. monitoring report on production, price and profit over different period and intervals

4. Limited prediction on future and unforeseen changes measures and support.

5. Unreliability of the existing system since it totally require human effort and expert. An effective

system should be able to work with minimal or no human effort or expertise.

6. The existing system lacks effective support for the expert in decision making and

recommendations

7. Lack of consistency in the existing system since the expert can be absent due to illness, leave and

other circumstances.

8. Lack of smooth interrelationship and communication between the actors of the system

1.4 JUSTIFICATION

As said earlier, it is the primary aim of any organisation to grow and improve in its organisational

operations. Despite the employment of economic experts in economic decision making it is also very

important to employ assisting, improved, enhancing, and supportive means and measure in decision

making. With the stated problems above the new proposed system will be able to solve them. The system

will improve efficiency, reliability, accuracy, consistent measure and support in making economic

decision, analysis and report generation and presentation. Most top international organisations in the

manufacturing industry which are in to several economic activities employ one or more forms of decision

support system and have testified to its benefit to the organisation value. Again the system ensures a

smooth communication and interrelationship between the major actors of the system which are {the

directors, managers, economic experts, departments, supervisors and the outside}. This system (proposed

system) will definitely be of great support to the organisation, the major actors of the system and also

ensure effective decision support, maximising profit, stock control and monitoring system.

1.5 THE INDUSTRY IN WHICH THE CASY STUDY OPERATES

Industry in a general sense means the production of goods and services in an economy. The term

industry also refers to a group of enterprises (private businesses or government-operated

corporations) that produce a specific type of good or service—for example, the beverage industry, the

gold industry, or the music industry, manufacturing or production industry. Some industries produce

physical goods, such as lumber, steel, or textiles. Other industries—such as the airline, railroad, and

trucking industries—provide services by transporting people or products from one place to another.

Still other industries, such as the banking and restaurant industries, provide services such as lending

money and serving food, respectively.

Nice cosmetics Nigeria LTD operates in the manufacturing industry. These organisations and

companies in the industry are divided into several manufacturing processes and product.

Manufacturing processes can produce either durable or nondurable goods. Durable goods are

products that exist for long periods of time without significant deterioration, such as automobiles,

airplanes, and refrigerators. Nondurable goods are items that have a comparatively limited life span,

such as clothing, food, and paper.

These companies are aimed at producing products for the satisfaction of consumer’s wants and

demand. Every company in the industry takes decision at one point or the other in relation to their

economic activities. These decisions go a long way to affect the companies’ status, operations,

activities and planning. Most top manufacturing companies in the industry has one form of expert

decision support system or the other. Expert systems are developed and employed for product

manufacturing, testing and even carry some sort of analysis and problem solving. Others use

computer aided decision support system base on analysis, observations, experiments etc. Expert

systems, decision support systems and information systems have been found interesting and

applicable in most organisations in the manufacturing industry.

The research will of course be of great benefit not to the case study alone but to all companies and

organisations in the industry as a whole. Since these companies takes decision on production, price

and profit analysis. The research with little or no modification can also be implemented by companies

in the industry and attain same or more benefit of the system.

The research though narrowed to the manufacturing industry can also be a resource material for

academic institutions and other institutions which finds the interest in the research. The research can

also be used as educative equipment for students, staffs and other individuals. A similar research may

be found in other institutions but to the best of my knowledge this research has not been found in the

nearby institutions.

The research can be seen from the point of view as a research that will function in 95% in

manufacturing industries. The research would save huge cost of hiring expertise; new skill can be fed

in to the system since the system can accept facts and changes on which it draws inferences. The

research goes a long way to give a form of innovation and development leadership and gaining

competitive advantages over its rivals.

If the project research is not undertaken in the industry, the problem of reliability, accuracy,

effectiveness, timelessness, consistency, efficiency of analysis, processing leading to decision making

will still be present, thereby not maximizing profit and or minimizing cost, delayed report generation,

price determination, prediction, stochastic, and inventory control problems.

1.6 PROJECT SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

The project objectives can be divided into sections. These sections explains the attainable goal,

aims and objectives of the project they include

a. The general objectives

b. The personal development objectives

c. Companies objectives

d. The universities’ objectives

- The general objectives

The primary goals, aim and objectives of the research is to use information technology to the

decision support system for production, price and profit analysis of the manufacturing industry. It is

also aimed at providing an imitation assistant for the economic experts or economist in some of his

analysis on P3. The system is also aimed at ensuring accuracy, reliability, efficiency, timeliness,

constituency, of information processing and delivery and also future predictions, inventory and

stochastic control. Report generation can’t be left out. The system assures an efficient and good report

generation, presentation. Drawing inferences from analytical data, suggesting conclusion, advice and

efficient decision support system. The system also in production analysis will give answers and

suggestions to these questions

a. What to produce

b. When to produce

c. For whom to produce

d. How much to produce

e. Production report over different period

f. How much to stock

- Personal development objectives

The research gives me the opportunity to show forth what I have learnt and gathered as knowledge

during the course of studying in the university. Secondly for the project or research, it is my aim to

try to improve economic decision making in P3 determination. An expert system that can work

efficiently like the economic experts based on the knowledge base built from the knowledge of the

expert and the deduction process and engine. A system that can imitate the expert in the system. The

system also is to improve the manufacturing industry as a whole. It will be a great fulfilment for me if

the project is found useful not just to the industry alone but other useful model derived form it. To

demonstrate the ability to think conceptually; To demonstrate the ability to evaluate the existing

works on a particular subject in a critical way and to relate this knowledge to the task at hand; To

apply my knowledge of information and communication technology to practical world applications.

- Companies or case study objective

The main aim of the company is to grow and this growth can be attained by maximizing profit at

minimal cost this can be derived by the decisions made by the company. The company is also aimed

at improving and increasing productivity, efficiency and gaining a more competitive advantage over

its rivals. All these are related to information and data processing therefore it is also a primary aim of

the company to ensure efficient, effective, reliable, consistent and timely information processing.

- Universities’ objectives

To enable me relate theories, skills and knowledge acquired to practice and to demonstrate

competence at understanding a methodical analyses, investigations, observations and experimental

operations to consolidate and test my ability and knowledge acquired in preparation for the labour

market and the outside world. Also aimed at making name out there through the students and

research.

1.7 SUMMARY OF RESEARCH METHODS

1.7.1 Research

The first phase of the project is the research. There were several areas that require considerable

research and reading. The main topics were the following; the existing system, interview with system

owners, interview with the experts and the organization workers in the department necessary.

Research for the project was also on the other manufacturing firms of the industry and how the

research is going to be beneficial to them.

1.7.2 Formal Specification

The second phase of the project was the development of formal specifications to describe the

software which performs the main function of the decision support system. The software receives

data as input and validates the data and with further processing gives an output. These outputs are the

bases on which decisions are made. The Software was developed and implemented in Visual

Basic.net.

1.8 PROJECT STRUCTURE AND ORGANIZATION

Here is a brief summary of every chapter from one to six. This is called synopsis, it gives a brief

description of each chapter and their respective information’s

- Chapter one: - chapter one begins with an introduction and a background of the problem of the

project or research. It gives a brief explanation of the project case study the existing system and its

limitation, benefit and significance of the research. The industry (manufacturing industry) which is

the case study was also talked about. Showing how beneficial the project will be as a whole. The

objectives and aims of the project research and other supporting objectives were taken into

consideration

- Chapter two: - chapter two concentrates on the literature review of the research. The literature

review contains elaborate explanation on some specific areas of the research, what previous work has

been done in relation to these specific areas of the research and how they are theoretically done on

paper. References were made to journals, periodical listed in the bibliography sections. Most of the

component of the research reviewed were:-

o The database design review

o Module design review

o Programming language review

o Design and methodology reviews

o Software engineering reviews

Chapter three: - chapter three entails the system design phase. It concentrates on systems

analysis/design/construction/testing and implementation, begins with a detailed description of current

system followed by analysis of current system and system proposal, system design specifications and

testing strategy. Chapter three dealt into the system construction and documentation and completed

with the organization and implementation issues. The description of data collected, their format and

methodology was taken down, the database design, table and entity design, knowledge base design

and computer program design. The chapter also comprise of the input design, output design, control

design, system design and requirement, program development and software engineering. All these

sections listed above are all listed with diagrams.

Chapter four: - the chapter comprises of systems analysis and finding methodologies elaborately

discussed. Fact finding, questionnaire, etc are all elaborated here. Factual knowledge and heuristic

knowledge were also taken down. The information, procedures, rules used by the experts were taken

down and generally analyzed. Decision description and format were stated and elaborated on.

Feasibility analysis details are also contained in this chapter. The chapter also looks at the result from

the project work, taking the analysis of eliminating erroneous data processing leading to inefficient

decision support system.

Chapter five: - the chapter contains inspirational supports, motivations for this project and system

development and how they were tackled. The beginning of the chapter contains the introduction to the

discussion on the project findings. The intensity, limitations, management of the project, problem

identifies, finding observations, problem solving approach and software installation and

implementation procedure and information were also included.

This chapter ends with the problems encountered, the limitations associated with the project and

future research possibility.

- Chapter six: - And the final chapter commences with the summary of findings, problems statements,

its solutions and future research possibility. The chapter also contains the conclusion,

recommendation, areas of future research, acknowledgement and project objectives. The project or

research bibliography, the appendix and work map also were stated. Snapshots of program and

system interface were printed in this chapter. This chapter ends with a recommendation for the use of

the system and conclusion.

-

1.9 Methodology, Analytical Tools and Techniques Used

The approach to investigating into specific areas of this project is based on the flow chart diagram

shown in figure 1.1 below

Figure 1 the project Methodology

1.9.1 Project Plan

Project Initiation

-Proposal Writing

-Proposal Acceptance

Preliminary Investigation

- List Problems

- Research on History Organization system

Problem Analysis

- Analyze the current system

- Establish system improvement objectives

Requirements Analysis

- Identify System Requirements

- Interview System owners

- Interview Economic expert

- Interview system

Project Documentation

Design

- Design the Application architecture

Project Submission

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

This literature is to review the existing economic decision system; the manual or paper-based decision

support system. This project is aimed at the Nice cosmetics Nigeria ltd. The economic expert making

decisions production, price and profit determination based on analysis, observations and fact. The

area in the review is purely the economic analysis for production, price and profit determination and

the system methodologies.

2.1 Overview of the Decision support system

Decision Support Systems (DSS) are a class of computerized information systems that support

decision-making activities. DSS are interactive computer-based systems and subsystems intended to

help decision makers use communications technologies, data, documents, knowledge and/or models

to complete decision process tasks.

A decision support system may present information graphically and may include an expert system or

artificial intelligence (AI). It may be aimed at business executives or some other group of knowledge

workers.

Typical information that a decision support application might gather and present would be, (a)

Accessing all information assets, including legacy and relational data sources; (b) Comparative data

figures; (c) Projected figures based on new data or assumptions; (d) Consequences of different

decision alternatives, given past experience in a specific context.

There are a number of Decision Support Systems. These can be categorized into five types:

Communication-driven DSS

Most communications-driven DSSs are targeted at internal teams, including partners. Its purpose are

to help conduct a meeting, or for users to collaborate. The most common technology used to deploy

the DSS is a web or client server. Examples: chats and instant messaging software’s, online

collaboration and net-meeting systems.

Data-driven DSS

Most data-driven DSSs are targeted at managers, staff and also product/service suppliers. It is used to

query a database or data warehouse to seek specific answers for specific purposes. It is deployed via a

main frame system, client/server link, or via the web. Examples: computer-based databases that have

a query system to check (including the incorporation of data to add value to existing databases.

Document-driven DSS

Document-driven DSSs are more common, targeted at a broad base of user groups. The purpose of

such a DSS is to search web pages and find documents on a specific set of keywords or search terms.

The usual technologies used to set up such DSSs are via the web or a client/server system.

Knowledge-driven DSS:

Knowledge-driven DSSs or 'knowledgebase' are they are known, are a catch-all category covering a

broad range of systems covering users within the organization setting it up, but may also include

others interacting with the organization - for example, consumers of a business. It is essentially used

to provide management advice or to choose products/services. The typical deployment technology

used to set up such systems could be client/server systems, the web, or software running on stand-

alone PCs.

Model-driven DSS

Model-driven DSSs are complex systems that help analyze decisions or choose between different

options. These are used by managers and staff members of a business, or people who interact with the

organization, for a number of purposes depending on how the model is set up - scheduling, decision

analyses etc. These DSSs can be deployed via software/hardware in stand-alone PCs, client/server

systems, or the web.

2.2 A Project-Oriented Decision Support System for Production Planning in Make-to-Order

Manufacturing (PDSS-PPM)

It has become quite common for make-to-order manufacturing industries to use the project-oriented

approach for planning production runs on various time scales. In this approach a project consists of

tasks, each of which represents a manufacturing process. The connections between the tasks are

captured by precedence constraints. Due to the physical characteristics of these processes, the

'intensity' of performing the tasks varies over time. At SZTAKI, new planning software has been

developed which is able to adequately model the varying intensity of tasks and the flow of

information and material between them.

In project-oriented production management each customer order becomes a project that must be

carried out from the ordering of material, through product design, to production and delivery to the

customer. Standard planning software packages model the tasks by rectangles, assuming

uninterrupted execution and a constant rate of resource usage. Moreover, the precedence constraints

between the tasks express only temporal relationships, while the information and material flow

between pairs of overlapping tasks are neglected. This makes it very difficult to realize the generated

production plan.

In order to create realistic production plans, a new decision support system has been developed in one

of the thematic clusters of the three-year 'Digital Factories' R&D project supported by the National

Research and Development Project in Hungary. The project started in July 2001 and finished in

March 2004. The work was carried out by the Engineering and Management Intelligence Laboratory

of SZTAKI in collaboration with the Miskolc University of Technology and the Machinery Plant of

General Electric Consumer & Industrial in Hungary.

Figure 2: Screen of the planning software.

Our software supports planning with variable-intensity tasks, where the flow of information and

material is captured by 'feeding-precedence' constraints between the tasks (defined below). Its

graphical user interface helps human planners develop a number of plan variants, organized in a tree

hierarchy. The variants may differ in the time windows of the projects, the set of projects selected for

planning and the resource capacity (Figure 2). The software obtains all project and resource data from

the information system of the plant through file exchange. It was an important requirement to keep

the response time short, thereby allowing the users to work interactively with the system.

Modeling with variable-intensity tasks and feeding-precedence constraints is the aim of the project. A

variable-intensity task is one in which the amount of work spent on the task may vary during the

execution. In actual production, tasks usually start at a low intensity during preparations which then

gradually increases to a maximum. The resources needed to complete a task are consumed

proportionally to the varying intensity. The output of the task may be used in downstream production

prior to the completion of the whole task. To model this situation, we introduced the notion of a

feeding-precedence constraint between a pair of tasks A and B, with parameter p specifying that p

percent of task A must be completed before task B may be started and that task B cannot advance

faster than task A (see Figure 3).

Figure 3: Feeding precedence constraint from task A to task B with p = 20%.

- Techniques employed

The planning problem has been modeled and solved by mathematical programming techniques

using cutting planes. The planning module (PM) is based on a commercial integer-programming

solver. The PM can optimize various objective functions that occur in practice, such as

minimizing the extra capacity needed to complete all projects, or the weighted tardiness. The

short response time of the system on real-life problems makes it suitable for interactive decision

support.

The PM has been embedded into a software package which assists the work of planners by offering

features such as displaying the structure (tasks and precedence) and the status (work done on each

task) of the projects. The package also provides editing functions, including modification of project

time windows or resource capacities, and supports the systematic elaboration of plan variants

organized in a tree hierarchy. This allows decision makers to choose the final plan from a set of

alternatives.

- Application areas

The system is suitable for solving production-planning problems in make-to-order manufacturing

where the tasks of a project represent aggregated activities. Another domain of application exists

when only the production must be scheduled, but on different time horizons. A long-term plan

(thirty weeks) can be generated by the planning module, and based on this, the weekly schedules

can be obtained by an appropriate short-term scheduler. A pilot system has been developed for

each of these application domains.

There are a number of key benefits of our project-oriented production-planning system. Planning with

variable intensity tasks and feeding precedence constraints results in more accurate production plans.

This, along with the combination of project execution and resource capacity planning leads to a better

due-date observance and to a better use of resources. As a result, more customer orders can be

accepted and production costs are reduced.

The techniques employed in the planning module can be applied in various settings. Current work is

focusing on improving the robustness of the planning module and making the user interface capable

of communicating with standard, widely used ERP systems.

2.3 Systems Design Concepts

There are five distinctive literature reviews, these are decision support system for {P3}, system

analysis, systems design, database design, programming language and knowledge base. Each of these

reviews has its level of observation and investigation. The section 2.3.1 begins with system of

decision making and implementation, followed by section 2.3.2 and 2.3.3 which dwells on the

systems analysis and systems design respectively. Section 2.3.4 deals with the database design,

various models and choice of model, whilst section 2.3.5 focuses on the programming language and

why. Section 2.3.6 also expert and knowledge based systems

2.3.1 Review of Decision support system for {P3 and ART}

Decisions are very important to the organization. The organization grows and improves efficiency on

the decision. Decisions are made in every department. In the Nice cosmetic Nigeria ltd eg. The

production department, the sales department, the distribution department, the packaging department,

the purchasing department, executives decision are made too. Management uses all these decision to

manage the organization. since it has been noticed how sensitive decision is to every department of

the organizations, experts are hired for making these decisions for each department based on their

skills, analytical skills, management skills, and experience. The economic department decisions are

made for production, purchasing, price and profit, sales and distribution. The economist experts

makes these decisions based on data collected, analysis on the market and the important factors, facts,

experience, skill, intelligence and knowledge. Decisions are made from deductive and inductive

process and reasoning from a set of knowledge stored.

Some of these decisions made include:-

For production: - how to produce, what to produce, what measure to produce, for whom to produce,

when to produce, production determination and possibility

For price: - how much to set for price, price equilibrium, {other decisions for price determination}

For profit:- what level of profit, profit estimation, what kind of profit, profit calculations and report.

Other decisions are also made for other economic activities such as sales, distribution, marketing and

advertising and others. The expert make these decisions and report to management and executives

and directors and these decisions recommended are further decided on and implemented. Since more

trust is on the expert, 95% of his decisions are considered. These decisions are communicated further

by the supervisor to the workers for which they are to implement. Data that are used for decisions

from one department is communicated to other department and finally get to the experts which are his

input for decision making.

The phases of decision making involve the following: -

Diagram for decision making phase

Figure 4: phase for decision making {P3}.

- Data and information gathering or collection

The economist also employs other strategic methods to collect data and information from inside and

outside the organization. Some of these methods are Interviews, observation, questionnaire, joint

resource planning and other fact finding processes and techniques.

- Observation and analysis

The Encarta dictionary gives the definition of observation as

1. paying attention: the attentive watching of somebody or something

2. observing of developments in something: the careful watching and recording of

something, e.g. a natural phenomenon, as it happens

3. record of something seen or noted: the result or record of observing something such

as a natural phenomenon and noting developments

4. remark or comment: a remark or comment on something that has been noticed

5. act of observing or obeying: the act of observing a religious occasion or ritual or of

obeying a law or rule.

An economic analyst begins an investigation by observing an object, situation or an activity.

Observation generally typically involves one or more of the human senses—hearing, sight, smell,

taste, and touch. Economic analyst typically uses tools to aid in their observations. For example, for

scientist a microscope helps view objects too small to be seen with the unaided human eye, while a

telescope views objects too far away to be seen by the unaided eye.

Sometimes, the economic analyst typically applies their observation skills to an experiment. An

experiment is any kind of trial that enables the economic analyst  to control and change at will the

conditions and data under which events occur. It can be something extremely simple, such as testing

the product under several conditions, or something highly complex. The economic analyst typically

repeats and reviews experiments, sometimes, in order to be sure that the results were not affected by

unforeseen factors and to prevent erroneous data.

Analysis, on the other hand is a general term that refers to systematic examination of the nature and

situation or cause of something. The development of modern science has created several specialized

forms of analysis. During an experiment, the economic scientists typically make measurements and

collect results as they work. This information are known as data. These data can take many forms,

and format. Data may be a set of numbers, such as daily measurements of the consumption of a

particular product or the demand and supply level under a specific condition or in a particular location

or a description of side effects in the intake and usage of a particular product with some certain

categories of persons. The economic Scientists or analyst typically use computers to arrange data in

ways that make the information easier to understand and analyze. Data may be arranged into a

diagram such as a graph that shows how one quantity of product in production per annum (say

facials, for instance) varies in relation to another quantity of product (say body creams) under some

certain conditions.

The economic Scientists or analyst sometimes use mathematics and models to analyze the data and

help them interpret their results. The types of mathematics used include statistics, which is the

analysis of numerical data, and probability, which calculates the likelihood that any particular event

will occur or stochastic predictions and control.

- Data processing

Data Processing, in computer science, is the analysis and organization of data by the repeated use of

one or more computer programs. Data processing is used extensively in business, engineering, and

science and to an increasing extent in nearly all areas in which computers are used. Businesses use

data processing for such tasks as payroll preparation, accounting, record keeping, inventory control,

sales analysis, and the processing of bank and credit card account statements. Engineers and scientists

use data processing for a wide variety of applications, including the processing of seismic data for oil

and mineral exploration, the analysis of new product designs, the processing of satellite imagery, and

the analysis of data from scientific experiments.

Data processing is divided into two kinds of processing: database processing and transaction

processing. A database is a collection of common records that can be searched, accessed, and

modified, such as bank account records, and income tax data, production data. In database processing,

a computerized database is used as the central source of reference data for the computations.

Transaction processing refers to interaction between two computers in which one computer initiates a

transaction and another computer provides the first with the data or computation required for that

function.

Most modern data processing uses one or more databases at one or more central sites. Transaction

processing is used to access and update the databases when users need to immediately view or add

information; other data processing programs are used at regular intervals to provide summary reports

of activity and database status. Examples of systems that involve all of these functions are automated

teller machines, credit sales terminals, and airline reservation systems.

The economic Scientists processes these data collected. Based on knowledge, skill and experience the

economist processes these data by calculations and other form of processing so as to enable efficient

deductive and inductive process can be taken to direct these decision being made. To some extent the

economic scientist and analyst use computer to formulate and generate report.

Data processing cycle

The data-processing cycle represents the chain of processing events in most data-processing

applications. It consists of data recording, transmission, reporting, storage, and retrieval. The original

data is first recorded in a form readable by a computer. This can be accomplished in several ways: by

manually entering information into some form of computer memory using a keyboard, by using a

sensor to transfer data onto a magnetic tape or floppy disk, by filling in ovals on a computer-readable

paper form, or by swiping a credit card through a reader. The data are then transmitted to a computer

that performs the data-processing functions. The computer processes it. The operations the computer

performs can include accessing and updating a database and creating or modifying statistical

information. After processing the data, the computer reports summary results to the program’s

operator or experts.

As the computer processes the data, it stores both the modifications and the original data. This storage

can be both in the original data-entry form and in carefully controlled computer data forms such as

magnetic tape. Data are often stored in more than one place for both legal and practical reasons.

Computer systems can malfunction and lose all stored data, and the original data may be needed to

recreate the database as it existed before the crash.

The final step in the data-processing cycle is the retrieval of stored information at a later time. This is

usually done to access records contained in a database, to apply new data-processing functions to the

data, or in the event that some part of the data has been lost, to recreate portions of a database.

Examples of data retrieval in the data-processing cycle include the analysis of customer demand and

behavior to product, spending patterns and readiness to pay for product and the application of new

processing techniques to data to determine production and inventory control.

- Output and report generation

When these data and information are processed they generate output. These outputs vary from

different forms to different format. They may be in numerical data to logical data. Report are also

generated and can also be in different forms and format based on the analysis and method of

processing made. The output and report are further used for decision making. The output and report

can also, in different format be used for presentation and are communicated to the executives,

management and board of directors with which, finally, decisions are made and approved.

- Data Review

Before decisions are finally approved and taken the data gathered, collected and analyzed from the

several methods of data collection, gathering and fact finding are re analyzed, re tested and reviewed

for any erroneous data. This reevaluation and review helps to ensure correctness of data and to ensure

accurate and correct decision making because decision making to a very large percentage depends on

the data gathered. Some of these data go through serious cross examination and may even be

reviewed by external bodies or experts depending on how sensitive these data are.

- Decision Review And Implementation

The management and executive bodies reviews the decisions suggested by the economic experts or

analyst and then re evaluate these decisions. Final decisions are then made from these data with

agreement from the management, executive and directors. When the final decisions are made, they

are communicated to the departments head and supervisors for implementation. The department head

and supervisors send back information and data back to management so as to affirm decision

implementation. The head of the department and supervisors also send some data to the economist

scientist for more analysis and decision processing to go through t he cycle and phase of decision

making again.

2.3.2 Systems Analysis and Design [P3 ART]

Formally, information systems design is defined as those tasks that focus on the specifications of a

detailed computer-based solution. Whereas systems analysis emphasize on the business problems,

project scope, problem analysis, requirement analysis, logical analysis, decision analysis, systems

design focuses on the technical or implementation concerns of the system.

Systems design is driven by technical concerns of systems designers with the specifications from the

system analyst. Therefore, with respect to the information systems building blocks, systems design

addresses the data, process and interface building, system architecture and framework from the

systems designer’s perspective. There are many popular strategies or techniques for performing

systems design. A system design may be developed from one or more than one of these techniques or

methodologies.

- Modern structured design, a technique that focuses on processes.

- Information Engineering (IE), a technique that focuses on data and strategic planning to produce

application projects.

- Prototyping which a small working sample, and a technique that is an iterative process involving a

close working relationship between designers and users to produce a model of the new system.

- Joint Application Development (JAD), a technique that emphasizes participative development among

systems owners, users, designers and builders. During joint application development session of

systems design, the systems designer takes on the role of the facilitator.

- Rapid Application Development (RAD), a technique that represents a merge of various structured

techniques with prototyping and JAD to accelerate systems development.

- Object-Oriented Design (OOD), a new design strategy that follows up object-oriented analysis to

refine object requirements definitions and to define new design specific objects.

Systems design involves developing technical design specifications that will guide the construction

and implementation of the new system. To complete the design phase, the following task must be

completed. The major phases or activities of the build solution of a system design are:

- Design the application architecture.

- Design the system database(s).

- Design the system interface.

- Package the design specifications, and lastly

- Update the project plan.

For the analysis and design of the system [P3 ART] the Object oriented analysis and design OOAD

methodology and unified modeling language UML was used and implemented.

In these methodologies or techniques implemented the design was also base on these specifications

listed below;

- System Owner’s View of Interface

- System User’s View of Interface

- System Designer’s View of Interface

- System Builder’s View of Interface

The system owner gives the specifications and requirements for the system in their view. The system

is supposed to solve the stated problem of the system. The users and operators of the system also

gives their specifications since they use the system directly. The technical design of the system is

developed and determined by the system designer. The system design takes more interest such as

consistency, compatibility, and user interaction and user dialogues which describes who the user

moves from window-to-window, interacting with the application programs to perform useful work.

System builders construct, install, test, and implement both user and system-to-system interfaces

using interface technology of the system.

Object-oriented analysis and design methods are becoming the most widely used methods for

system design. The UML has become the standard language used in Object-oriented analysis and

design. It is widely used for modeling software systems and is increasingly used for designing non-

software systems and organizations.

In systems design, the uses of formal methods are indispensable in the development of safety critical

systems, where correctness is of the utmost priority.

2.3.3 Database Design

A Database is any collection of data organized for storage in a computer memory and designed for

easy access by authorized users. The data may be in the form of text, numbers, or encoded graphics.

Since their first, experimental appearance in the 1950s, databases have become so important in

industrial societies that they can be found in almost every field of information. Government, military,

and industrial databases are often highly restricted, and professional databases are usually of limited

interest. A wide range of commercial, governmental, and nonprofit databases are available to the

general public, however, and may be used by anyone who owns or has access to the equipment that

they require.

Small databases were first developed or funded by the U.S. government for agency or professional

use. In the 1960s, some databases became commercially available, but their use was funneled through

a few so-called research centers that collected information inquiries and handled them in batches.

Online databases, that is, databases available to anyone who could link up to them by computer, first

appeared in the 1970s. For the home user, the equipment required includes a computer terminal, a

telephone, and a modem, which enables the terminal and the database (usually some type of search-

service system) to intercommunicate.

The term or expression database originated within the computer industry. Although its meaning has

been broadened by popular use, even to include non-electronic databases, this write up talks more on

database technical perspective. The items retrieved from database when queried become information

that can be used to make decisions. The computer program used to manage and query a database is

known as a database management system (DBMS).

Database Model

A database may come in several models. A database model is a theory or specification describing

how a database is structured and used. Typically, for a given database, there is a structural description

of the type of facts held in that database: this description is known as a schema. The schema describes

the objects that are represented in the database, and the relationships among them. There are a number

of different ways modeling a the database structure. Some of these database models are:

- Hierarchical;

- Network;

- Relational;

- Context.

Some other models include Associative, the Concept-Oriented, the Multi-dimensional, the Star

schema etc.

A detailed description and explanation of the major database models are given below;

Hierarchical

This is a tree structure database organization. There is a hierarchy of parent and child data segments

and relationship. This structure implies that a record can have repeating information, generally in the

child data segments. The hierarchical model uses Parent Child Relationships using their record types.

These are a 1: N mapping between record types. For instance, an institution may store information

about a student, such as name, index number, department etc. The institution may also store

information about an student guardian, such as name and Address. The student and guardian data

forms a hierarchy, where the student data represents the parent segment and the guardian data

represents the child segment. If a guardian has three children as students, then there would be three

parent segments associated with one student segment. In a hierarchical database the parent-child

relationship is one to many or many to one depending on the design and relationship.

Network

The popularity of the network data model coincided with the popularity of the hierarchical data

model. Some data were more naturally modeled with more than one parent per child. So, the network

model permitted the modeling of many-to-many relationships in data. In 1971, the Conference on

Data Systems Languages (CODASYL) formally defined the network model. The basic data modeling

construct in the network model is the set construct. A set consists of an owner record type, a set name,

and a member record type. A member record type can have that role in more than one set; hence the

multi-parent concept is supported. An owner record type can also be a member or owner in another

set. The data model is a simple network, and link and intersection record types (called junction

records by IDMS) may exist, as well as sets between them. Thus, the complete network of

relationships is represented by several pair wise sets; in each set some (one) record type is owner (at

the tail of the network arrow) and one or more record types are members (at the head of the

relationship arrow). Usually, a set defines a 1: M relationship, although 1:1 is permitted. The

CODASYL model is based on mathematical set theory.

Relational

Relational Databases are types of database or database management system that stores information in

tables—rows and columns of data—and conducts searches by using data in specified columns of one

table to find additional data in another table. In a relational database, the rows of a table represent

records (collections of information about separate items) and the columns represent fields (particular

attributes of a record). In conducting searches, a relational database matches information from a field

in one table with information in a corresponding field of another table to produce a third table that

combines requested data from both tables. For example, if one table contains the fields EMPLOYEE-

ID, LAST-NAME, FIRST-NAME, and HIRE-DATE, and another table contains the fields DEPT,

EMPLOYEE-ID, and SALARY, a relational database can match the EMPLOYEE-ID fields in the

two tables to find such information as the names of all employees earning a certain salary or the

departments of all employees hired after a certain date. In other words, a relational database uses

matching values in two tables to relate information in one to information in the other. Microcomputer

database products typically are relational databases. A relational database allows the definition of data

structures, storage and retrieval operations and integrity constraints. In such a database the data and

relations between them are organized in tables.

For the purpose of this project, relational database model was selected for the following reasons;

Structured Independence. Because the relational database model does not use navigational data

access system, data paths are irrelevant to relational database designers, programmers, and end users.

Changes in the relational database structure do not affect the DBMS’s data access in any way.

Therefore the relational database model achieves the structural independence not found in

hierarchical and network database models.

Improved Conceptual Simplicity. Although the hierarchical and network database models where

conceptually much simpler than the file management system they replaced, the relational database

model is even simpler at the conceptual level. Because the relational database model gives us the

luxury of ignoring physical data storage characteristics, we can concentrate on the logical view of the

database. That is, we can focus on the human perception of data storage rather than on the often

difficult-to-comprehend manner in which the computer “sees” the same data.

Easier Database Design, Implementation, Management, and Use. Because the relational model

achieves both data independence and structural independence, it becomes much easier to design the

database and to manage its contents.

The DBMS used for the system was MySql. MySql is a relational database model, a powerful

program with numerous easy-to-use features, data capacity and functionality.

2.3.4 Programming Language

In building the system from the design specifications from the system designer, a reliable and easy to

use programming language was used. Microsoft Visual Basic.net IDE was a better choice to use

because of it rapid application architecture. Some other reasons for selecting visual basic.net are;

- Visual Basic is easy, quick to use application development tool for computer program development.

- Visual Basic provides greater flexibility than all the other available programming languages.

- Visual Basic provides forms and modules already created which users can easily add as controls, set

properties and can work efficiently.

- It also allows creation and customizing of control’s appearance using existing ActiveX.

- Visual Basic.net provides an application packaging wizard that enables users to create standard

application packages and internet packages.

- Visual basic.net also is an object oriented programming language and has all features of an OOP

language.

2.3.5 Expert and knowledge based systems

Knowledge-based systems are systems based on the methods and techniques of Artificial

Intelligence. Their core components are the knowledge base and the inference mechanisms. While for

some authors of expert systems materials says case-based reasoning systems and neural networks are

all particular types of knowledge-based systems, there are others who consider that neural networks

are different, and exclude it from this category. KBS is a frequently used abbreviation for

knowledge-based system.

Expert System is a type of computer application program that makes decisions or solves problems in

a particular field, such as finance or medicine, by using knowledge and analytical rules defined by

experts in the field. Human experts solve problems by using a combination of factual knowledge and

reasoning ability. In an expert system, these two essentials are contained in two separate but related

components, a knowledge base and an inference engine. The knowledge base provides specific facts

and rules about the subject, and the inference engine provides the reasoning ability that enables the

expert system to form conclusions. Expert systems also provide additional tools in the form of user

interfaces and explanation facilities. User interfaces, as with any application, enable people to form

queries, provide information, and otherwise interact with the system. Explanation facilities, an

intriguing part of expert systems, enable the systems to explain or justify their conclusions, and they

also enable developers to check on the operation of the systems themselves. Expert systems

originated in the 1960s; fields in which they are used include chemistry, geology, medicine, banking

and investments, and insurance.

Artificial Intelligence (AI), a term that in its broadest sense would indicate the ability of an artifact to

perform the same kinds of functions that characterize human thought. The possibility of developing

some such artifact has intrigued human beings since ancient times. With the growth of modern

science, the search for AI has taken two major directions: psychological and physiological research

into the nature of human thought, and the technological development of increasingly sophisticated

computing systems.

In the latter sense, the term AI has been applied to computer systems and programs capable of

performing tasks more complex than straightforward programming, although still far from the realm

of actual thought. The most important fields of research in this area are information processing,

pattern recognition, game-playing computers, and applied fields such as medical diagnosis. Current

research in information processing deals with programs that enable a computer to understand written

or spoken information and to produce summaries, answer specific questions, or redistribute

information to users interested in specific areas of this information. Essential to such programs is the

ability of the system to generate grammatically correct sentences and to establish linkages between

words, ideas, and associations with other ideas. Research has shown that whereas the logic of

language structure—its syntax—submits to programming, the problem of meaning, or semantics, lies

far deeper, in the direction of true AI.

In medicine, programs have been developed that analyze the disease symptoms, medical history, and

laboratory test results of a patient, and then suggest a diagnosis to the physician. The diagnostic

program is an example of so-called expert systems—programs designed to perform tasks in

specialized areas as a human would. Expert systems take computers a step beyond straightforward

programming, being based on a technique called rule-based inference, in which pre-established rule

systems are used to process the data. Despite their sophistication, systems still do not approach the

complexity of true intelligent thought.

Many scientists remain doubtful that true AI can ever be developed. The operation of the human mind

is still little understood, and computer design may remain essentially incapable of analogously

duplicating those unknown, complex processes. Various routes are being used in the effort to reach

the goal of true AI. One approach is to apply the concept of parallel processing—interlinked and

concurrent computer operations. Another is to create networks of experimental computer chips, called

silicon neurons, which mimic data-processing functions of brain cells. Using analog technology, the

transistors in these chips emulate nerve-cell membranes in order to operate at the speed of neurons.

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

3.1 Detailed Description of the as-is System (Current System)

The company’s privacy statement states some specific duties for the workers in several departments

and possible decisions to be taken in these departments. The economic experts in the organization

make decisions solely for the economic activities of the organization. The manufacturing company

is solely into manufacturing cosmetics for their various costumers in various part of the continent.

To meet up with growth and maintain a better standard in the market efficient decisions need to be

taken for the basic and important economic activities in the organization. The basic economic

decisions made are for production, price determination, profit analysis, future predictions, inventory

control, stochastic control etc. Because of the sensitivity of these decisions to the organization,

economic experts are hired to make and recommend these decisions for management and directive

support.

The economic experts or scientist draws his decisions base on some factual knowledge and

heuristic knowledge. The expert also collects data for decision making. These data are collected

from the departments, the sales agent, the consumers and natural facts. Some of these facts are:

o If the durability of goods and services keeps customers.

o If the customers love the bonanza period.

o If sales increases during bonanza periods.

o If with increasing sales, customer locking increases.

o If with increasing locking cost, customer switching cost increases.

o If with increasing customer switching cost, customer trust increases.

o If with increasing customer trust an increase in competitive advantage rises.

For the products and production it has been observed as a fact that:

o People use body creams more during the dry season.

o People use cosmetics during occasional and ceremonial periods.

o Occasional and ceremonial periods are usually during the later part of the year.

o People bath more during the hot and dusty seasons.

o 95% of the population use soap in bathing.

o Population of females is more than males.

o Female use cosmetics more than males.

o Females love flashy packages.

o People love minimal cost.

The experts also draw decisions studying these various economic aspects listed below:

Type of economy

Market structures

Forces of demand and supply

Scarcity level

Resources and factors of production

Production possibility table and productive efficiency

Market demand and market supply

Market surplus and market shortage analysis

Elasticity and equilibrium

Taxes and utility etcetera.

With all these it is sure that the experts should be well equipped with knowledge and skills in these

various economic aspects. The experts should also be vast and experience adding to his analytical

skills and approaches to be able to draw effective, efficient and reliable decisions for the organization

in order to ensure smooth operations and growth in the economic activities of the organization.

Adding to these facts, the experts also have some rules, procedures and guidelines for making

decisions. These rules and conditions are well stated in the company’s privacy statement.

3.1.1 Rules and conditions for decision making

According to the company’s policy statement stated are some rules, terms and conditions that must be

adhered to and satisfied for decision making for the organization. The expert and other decision

making department must meet these rules and conditions before they are allowed to make decisions

for the organizations. Some of these terms are listed below

a) Management or qualified personnel are allowed to make decisions for the organization.

b) Any Candidates making decisions must be in good state and condition of mind,

physiologically and educationally balance.

c) In all decisions made should be for companies benefit and not for personal reasons or

interest.

d) All decisions must be validated by the directors and management bodies before they are

implemented.

e) Any decisions made by a personnel that are invalid and not beneficial for the organization

may be queried and treated

f) The experts hired to make decisions must be knowledgeable of the situation that calls for

the decisions

g) All procedure for decision making must be adhered to.

3.1.2 Decision Making Procedure

In making decisions for the organizations for efficiency, growth and development, models and structures

to be used and followed to make decision were created by the experts from within and outside the

organization. Some of these models are the decision matrix, linear programming model and stochastic

deduction model. The experts employ one of these models at a time to make and draw decision as

necessary. These models go a long way to ensure a beneficial method for presentation and reporting.

Some of these models involve mathematical calculations and analysis. These three main models are the

one mostly employed for production, price and profit decisions. These models receive input in form of

data and process these data in either arithmetic, logical and analytical operation. The models are further

explained with diagram at the later part of this chapter.

3.1.3 System block diagram of the as-is-system

Figure 3.1 Block Diagram of the Manual economic decision making System

3.1.4 The Problem solving approach

The problem solving approach used in this project is the problem decomposition method. The

problems obtained base on the analysis of the current system is broken down into smaller pieces,

chunks which were analyzed using the problem decomposition/reduction method.

Data collected

Data collected

Data validation and authentication

Data validation and authentication

Expert reviews and organizes data

Expert reviews and organizes data

Expert determines decision to be madeExpert determines

decision to be madeExpert filters data to be

usedExpert filters data to be

used

Experts design and determine models to be

used

Experts design and determine models to be

used

Expert Processes filtered Data manually

Expert Processes filtered Data manually

File, makes and recommend decision

File, makes and recommend decision

Presents decision to management

Presents decision to management

Management review of data

Management review of data

Final decision and Confirmation

Final decision and Confirmation

Implementation of decisionImplementation of decision

Fig 3.2 Problem Decomposition for proposed system

With this decomposition technique, the scope for the new or to-be-system was derived:

3.2 Description of to-be system [P3 ART] (Proposed System)

The to-be system is a computerized system. The computer aided decision support, analytical and

reporting system is primarily aimed at assisting the economic experts in carrying his or her economic

decisions. A DSS computer program will be developed to carry the main functions that is, efficient

economic decision making, reporting, analysis, presentations and some others. The computer program

also employs the method and models for making decision inclusive to other methods and methodology.

The system also has a monitoring facility and has a recommendation tool. The system also will have the

ability to educate the user in some economic terms used and unknown to the user. The flow chart below

gives a descriptive explanation of the decision making phase of the system.

Little or No record keeping

Lack of consistency in reporting decisions and analysis

No track of price and profits and the organization runs without any guild or decision support.

Little or No record keeping

Lack of consistency in reporting decisions and analysis

No track of price and profits and the organization runs without any guild or decision support.

No record kept for available productions price and profit.

No record kept for decisions made.

No record for analysis made.

No record kept for available productions price and profit.

No record kept for decisions made.

No record for analysis made.

No efficient reporting tool.

Absence of experts affects the reporting of decisions.

Difficulty in presentation of report.

No efficient reporting tool.

Absence of experts affects the reporting of decisions.

Difficulty in presentation of report.

NoWeekly, Monthly, Yearly monitoring on price and profit.

Also since no DSS or any other form of guild the organisation do not deliver its optimal functionality in the its economic activities.

NoWeekly, Monthly, Yearly monitoring on price and profit.

Also since no DSS or any other form of guild the organisation do not deliver its optimal functionality in the its economic activities.

Decomposed problemsProblems

Fig 3.3 System flow chart for DSS

3.2.1 Explanation P3 module

P3 stated earlier {Production, price and profit} are the major aspects covered by the

project and research in decision making from all the economic activities involved in the organization.

Several system techniques are used in drawing conclusion and making decisions by the proposed

system {P3 ART}. Most of them include calculative techniques and other based on economic

analysis, common sense and decision making techniques. They include for production the Linear

programming (Simplex method), decision matrix, market situation with consumer feedback and fact

based rule method of making decisions. Price and profit involves economic and calculative analysis.

All these methods will be well programmed by the proposed system. Since P3 are the primary

economic activities, the data collected for the analysis are stored, processed by the system and are

used to deduce information on which decisions will be made.

3.2.2 Explanation for ART module

ART – ‘Analytical reporting tool’ uses means of dedicated programs and other controlled supporting

programs to make analysis and generate reports. In this module report, processed data are generated

by this tool for top management review. Report on the economic activities, decision

recommendations and daily transaction e.g. production, are created. This report goes a long way to

improve the organisations’ value chain and decision making. The analytical tool is responsible for

making analysis based on data provided for the system and the category of the analysis. Only

Authenticated Users of the program with right administered privileges and roles can use these

programs to perform this function of the system. These data are entered and after processing they are

stored in the database for future purposes and references, it also can compare report data between

different periods of time and different products. The output of the Analytical reporting tool will be the

bases on which analysis is being made and the integrity of the input data to the system. The tool also

allows printing of the generated report and analysis.

3.2.3 To-Be System full Module Description

The system holds roles and activity to be played by different actors of the system. The actors

include the directors (System owners), the managers, the economic experts and the supervisors for the

production, sales and distribution department. The full module of the system {P3 ART} created an

interface to satisfy the need and requirement of all actors of the system. Based on the different roles

of the actors, the systems full module satisfy and solves the problems from the collection of data for

decision making from all data resources to its processing and output in different formats either for

printing or for presentation to the reliable and efficient storage capability of the system. The system

full module also has a help desk which gives knowledgeable information to the user relating to terms

and definitions used in the process of the usage of the system. Security and monitoring issues are not

left out in the full module of the system.

3.2.4 Objectives of the Proposed System

The main objectives of the system are to solve the identified problems of the as is or current system.

Owing to this fact, strategic and systematic procedure, techniques have been developed and

introduced by the new system so as to effectively solve the problems of the current or existing system

stated in problem statement in chapter 1.3 section. The system is also aimed at improving the existing

information processing system of the organization. The system will reduce cost of hiring, cost of

decision making, and cost of production and maximize profit. The system is also aim to ensure

efficient management and organization in the case study and related industry.

3.3 System Development of the to-be system {Proposed System}

With the effective and systematic analyses of the as is system, that is the existing or current system,

the tools for the development of the to-be system (Proposed system) was deduced. To effectively

break down the to-be system development, the system life cycles (SDLC) comes in. The system life

cycle is the stages or phases that a project (P3 ART) passes through from the level of its conception

to its implementation. In structured system analysis the system development life cycle (SDLC)

involves the new system to go through the following stages to its birth:

Fig 3.4-The System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

The system development methodology used was the combination of object oriented system

development (OOSD) and the water fall model. The OOSD combines the logic of the system

development life cycle with the power of objected oriented modeling and programming. OOSD follows a

defined systems development life cycle much like the SDLC. In modeling the system during the

development the OOAD and UML 2 were used.

1 The Planning phase gives answers to the question “why build the system?” and “can this system be

built?” This phase involves identifying the organizations’ value, analyzing the feasibility of the

proposed system. Feasibility here is the measure of the project to certain conditions like time,

technical, operational, cost and benefits and others. The output or deliverable of this stage is the work

plan for the project.

2 The Analysis phase answers to the questions “who is the system for?”, “What will the system yield?”

and “how best can the system be built to answer to the problems of the organization?” This phase

involves the analysis of the existing system which will give rise to the scope definition, the problem

analysis, requirement analysis and specifications, logical analysis and decision analysis. It also

involves the methodology and models for information gathering, process modeling and data

modeling. The actual methodology used was the object oriented analysis (OOA). Feasibility studies

as an activity that spans through the system development life cycle was also checked at this stage.

The analysis phase or stage gives the project or system proposal and the output or deliverables.

3. Design, construction and implementation phases gave answers to the question “how will the system

work?”, “how will the system be created and constructed with ease of use by the partakers?” and

“how will the system be installed?” respectively. These phases consist of the whole aspect of the

software engineering of the project. The software life cycle involving the use of the traditional life

cycle model (waterfall model) was broken down and analyzed. The high level and detailed level of

the modules were also taken into consideration. The OOD and UML 2 (object oriented design and

unified modeling language respectively) methodologies were carefully studied and implemented for

the design phase. The OOP (Object Oriented Programming) structure or methodology was

implemented for the construction aspect of the implementation phase. The output or deliverables for

these stages of phases are the system specifications and new system and maintenance plan

respectively. The design phase also includes the Physical design, Architectural design, Interface

design (GUI {Graphical user interface}), Database and file design and Program design. The

implementation phase involves the system Construction and Installation.

3.3.1 System Planning phase (feasibility studies, cost and benefit analysis)

As said a project without a plan will eventually lead to a drastic failure. A plan is a method of doing

something that is worked out in advance. It is outline strategy, list, order and drawn prospective for

the project, event or activity. The project plan involves all strategic process, activities, requirement

and outlined procedure all drawn to efficiently carry out and execute the proposed project. This phase

gave rise to the project plan. Some limitations and expectations were carefully analysed, studied so as

to consider the project feasible and to know if it can be built under some specifications and

boundaries. A feasibility study was carried out. Feasibility study is the preliminary study taken to

access and know whether a planned project is likely to be practical and successful. The feasibility

study done in this phase is to know the degree or level to which something can be carried out or put to

effect. The major feasibility study carried out are explained below

- Technical feasibility

The first aspect to consider when developing the project plan is to know if the project is technically feasible.

Technical feasibility is a measure of the practicality of a technical solution and the availability of

technical resources and expertise. Technical feasibility has to do with testing and accessing to know if

all the technical knowhow, skills, human power, tools, techniques and procedures are in place for the

development of the project and if the problems of the organisation can be solved. This thereby

ensures all technical requirements are put in place before the project commences. The software,

hardware, human, methodologies, procedure and other technical requirement were carefully analysed

and made sure they will be able to solve the problems and meet the requirements of the system.

- Operational feasibility

Operational feasibility is also very important. It gave answer to the question “Can the system or project be used

and operated?” It also answers to how well a proposed system solves the problems and takes

advantage of available opportunities. Due to the scope and technical availability of the project and

being observed that the requirements are limited and small there by the system problems can be

solved efficiently.

- Economic feasibility

Economic feasibility is a measure of the cost-effectiveness of a project or solution. Cost effectiveness

principle is the principle of going for least cost: the principle that economic objectives should be

accomplished at the lowest cost. Also it gave answer to the question “is the cost for carrying out this

project available and is the stake holder and system owner’s ready to take responsibility of the cost of

the project?”

The Return on Investment (ROI) method was used to determine the economic feasibility

and was calculated using the expected value from the Cash Flow Method of Cost-Benefit Analysis.

The ROI is a calculation of the percentage rate that measures the relationship between the amount the

organization gets back from an investment and the amount invested therefore the name “Return on

investment”. The cash flow method is used to calculate for the expected value (Expected value =

total benefits – total cost).

The proposed system cost consists of both

• Development costs: onetime costs that will not recur after the project has been completed.

• Operating costs: costs that recur throughout the lifetime of the system.

ROI = (estimated benefits – estimated costs) / estimated costs.

Expected Value = estimated benefits – estimated costs

- Schedule feasibility

Focuses on the time availability for the project processes and activities to be carried out It also

accesses the time requirement and constraint from the organisation and project developers.

3.3.1.1 Project Work Plan Development

The project work plan is a detailed structure chart or list showing how all processes of the project

is carried out and by whom. The P3 project uses a top down work plan development approach which

involves identifying all the important tasks and activities of the project first followed by the other

tasks listing them according to their order importance. These tasks are describe and allocated an

appropriate time and schedule for their execution. The task list of project P3 is shown below:

No Task Name Duration (days) Dependency Description

1 Data gathering 3 0 Gather data and information needed for the system

2 Analysis (as-is system) 21 1 Analysing the current and existing system

3 Data validation 3 1,2 Validate the data collected

4 Feasibility studies 14 3 Carrying out the system feasibility studies

5 System context diagram 7 3 Developing the system context diagram for ERD

6 ERD development 7 5 Developing the ERD for database specifications

7 System Design 14 6 Design specification of the system

8 Database design 14 7 Design and implementation of the database

9 Control design 7 8 Logical design of the software for the system

10 Program design 14 9 Software engineering process for program design

11 Construction/programming 30 10 Writing and building the software for the system

12 Debugging and testing 7 11 Fixing errors in program and testing

13 Software quality assurance 3 11,12 Testing the software quality

14 documentation 15 13 Preparing and finalizing the project documentation

15 packaging 3 14 Preparing the project for delivery to system owners

16 Delivery and closing 3 15 Installing the system and changing over

Fig 3.5 Major activities on gantt’s chart

3.3.2 System Analysis Phase

System analysis is a problem-solving technique that decomposes a system into its component

pieces for the purpose of studying how well those component parts work and interact to accomplish

their purpose. It involves various approaches and methodologies. The methodology employed for this

system is Object Oriented Analysis. Fact finding was also conducted for data gathering for the

research. Fact and data were gathered from a set of interviews conducted with the manager and

Planning

Analysis

Information gatheringDesign

Construction

Installation & support

Quality assurance test

Weeks 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 2224

Documentation

Activities

questionnaires given to the users of the system. The approach for this project analysis OOA identify

the major entity and activity of the system and relating them as object stating their divers properties,

attributes, identifiers and behaviours. The analysis stage of the research is broken down into these

phases explained below:

- Scope definition:

Due to the effective planning carried out for the project, the scope of the project was set, confirmed

and concluded. The Scope defines the length and breadth of the project. It defines the boundaries of

the research. Understanding the limitations of the research and with planning, certain portion or part

of the research will be taken into consideration because of time, cost, power, skill and other

limitations will not permit the whole system (existing system) to be improved and modified. The

economic activities in the case study involve several activities including the scope of the research.

The major economic activities covered by the research are analysis, report generation and

presentation, and decision making for production price and profit domain. The research does not

include sales and marketing, accounting, distribution, human resource management and other activity

of the organization.

- Problem definition or analysis:

Basically as stated above all the problems discovered in the existing system of the case study in the

problem statement section in chapter one are feasible that is they can be solved. With the project

evaluator, designers and developers working hand in hand with the system users and stake holders to

identify the problems, its causes, effects and possible solutions in the system was not a difficult but time

consuming task. This giving rise to the project requirement analysis and effective feasibility analysis

enable the perfect understanding of the effectiveness, benefits, efficiency of outputs and deliverables of

the proposed system to not just the system stake holders but also the system users.

- Requirement analysis:

Owing to the problems identified in the existing system, it was noted that some basic requirements needs

to be in place and analyzed. It gave answer to the question “what is required of the new system?” and

“what is required to solve the problems of the existing system?” To meet with the project expectation and

recommendations the requirement analysis is very important. These requirements fall under the

functional and non functional requirement that is major requirement relating to the project and minor

requirement relating to the project respectively. They are further explained below

o Functional requirement: The functional requirements of the system are the basic and

most important functionality required of the system. They are aimed at solving the identified

problems of the research. Sometimes they also give specifications for the user interface program

design of the project. It states the procedures of how some or all of the activities of the system

achieve requirement. The functional requirement of the system are started below:

Support in making decision with the presence or absence of the experts or specialist.

Efficiency in monitoring activities and efficient record keeping and retrieval

Ability to carry out analysis on some economic activities based on the scope of the

system.

Should be able to create quick, presentable and accurate reports, outputs and deliverables

for the organisation but limited to the system scope.

Ensure a smooth communication between the experts, the manager, directors,

supervisors and department.

Audit trails of who made changes to the database must be maintained;

The system must provide standard error checking; and

The system must provide data integrity checks to ensure data remains consistent and

updated.

o Non-functional requirement: The non functional requirements are not major requirements

the system should meet or is dependent on but they are of supporting importance to the

system. They ensure the system gives better and efficient deliverables. The system need

some support outside the functional requirement. They are listed below:

The system should allow only authorised users to access and use the program.

The system should be able to render help services to both those to use the program and

definitions to some economic and other terms needed the user.

The system should be able to keep detailed track of activities done by the user as a history

log for better administration.

The system should be able to give some recommendations and perform some diagnosis

required for better administration.

Also the requirement analysis and documentation goes a long way to help in identifying classes for

the system and modelling the class diagram. In the design phase it will be elaborated further.

- Logical analysis or design: - The logical analysis or design gives and explain the structure or

direct implementation of the functional requirement of the system. It gives a prototype that is a small

working sample of the system functional requirement expectation and implementation. It also

validates the functional requirement. It also gives answer the question “is the functional requirement

valid an authentic?”

Fig 3.6 Logical design of the proposed system

Activity

Domain

Frontend

Platform

Backend

Decision Making

Analysis

Report

Production Price Profit

P3 – ART DatabaseDataflow

Activity

Domain & Processes

- Decision analysis: - Based on the problems stated above, the feasibility studies carried

and the stated functional and non functional requirement it has been decided that the system can and

will be built and implemented since all requirement for the development of the system are available

and are in place but it still will require other support from other supporting programs like Microsoft

office packages and others to enable it function effectively. Also the system can’t operate without

human intervention and supervision as it is not a complete expert system so it needs to be

administered monitored and prevented from malicious, not scrutinised activities and users.

3.3.2.1 System Context Diagram of P3-ART

Fig 3.7 System Context Diagram

- Explanation of the system context of P3-ART

The System Context diagram shows the interaction relationship between the entities and the new

system. The system P3-ART allows for the following activities to be done by certain entities and the

system in turn gives outputs to those inputs.

Inputs to the system: Inputs comes to the system from various aspects. The major data resources

which are the data resource {market, customers, and intangible data sources such as conditions, tax

Expert

Data Resources

Department

Board of Directors

Managers

Gets data for decision making

Generate report and presentation for management and B.O.D

Provides data for validation

Stores Data provided data

Gets report and presentation information

Sends recommendation, advice and comments

Uses Knowledge, model to analyze data and recommend decision

Provides data needed for decision making

Validate provided data

Review recommended decisions

Gets data for review and confirmation

DSSP3 - ART

0

etcetera}, managers, experts and the board of directors provide data for the system. It is these data

that analysis is carried out and processed to enhance decision making and efficient report mechanism

to the system. The department also create data for input to the systems which could either be turn

over data. The manager and the board of directors (B.O.D) provide confirmation, reviews and final

decision to the system as input.

Outputs generated from the above inputs: The outputs and deliverables are the major aim of the

system (DSS P3 - ART). Base on the system requirement documentation and analysis, the output

solve the problem of the as-is system. The output are in forms of operation and decision report, output

covering the domains and activities of the systems and data and information formats for presentation

to the stake holders, seminars and meetings. The system also provides feedback, comments, status,

update, and educative information as output to the system owners, users and administrator.

One of the primary challenges is the ability to elicit the correct and necessary system

requirements from the stakeholders, system owners and specify them in a manner understandable so

those requirements can be verified and validated. Thus the use of the User-centered development

model which is depicted by the Use-case diagram is developed. This is shown below:

3.3.2.2 Use Case Diagram for P3-ART

Reviews

Checks

ReviewsRecommends

creates

Managers

ExpertsBoard of Directors

Department

DecisionsDecisions

ReportReport

AnalysisAnalysis

PricePrice

ProductionProduction

ProfitProfit

Makes

decision for

carries

Analyse

Analyse

Generates

Provides data for

Carries

Carries decision for

Figure 3.8 System Use case Diagram

From the diagram above all activities carried out by the system is shown and the actors that is the

person responsible for that activity is also shown by the arrows. From the context diagram and the use

case diagram the system Entity relationship diagram was developed. The entity relationship diagram

ERD shows the major entities of the system and their respective properties, attributes and relationship

to other entities of the system. From the ERD the systems database was also developed this will be

shown in the database design section of the design phase.

3.3.2.3 System Normalized Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)

The system normalized ERD do not show the whole attribute of each entity. However all entities have

a primary key that is, their IDs and foreign keys in the other entity which they occur depending on

their various relationship. ManagersExperts B.O.D

DecisionAnalysis

Report

Module_P3

User_Registration

Status

Login

Role_Priviledges

Whats_New

Decision_Matrix

Simplex

Factual

Production_ReportEconomic_Data

History_Log

BOD_Report

Is Owned by

Is Owned by

Is Owned by

makes

carries

reviews

reviews creates

Is made up of

Comprises of

has

has

has

has

Adds to

Is owned by

Is owned by

Adds new

has

Occurs in

Comprises of

Figure 3.9 System Normalised Entity relationship Diagram

3.3.3 System Design phase

The system design employs the build and not the buy solution. That is the software and database for

the system was built and not bought or purchased. This task focuses on the specification of a detailed

computer-based solution. This is also known as the physical design. The object oriented design and

unified modelling language 2 approach (OOD and UML 2 respectively) was used to design this

system. Object oriented design is a process and object-oriented technique for breaking up a large

program into object understanding their properties, attribute behaviours and relationship. It also

shows the software object hierarchy and modules which results in a computer program. This therefore

makes the system software and program easier to implement and maintain. Under the build solution

in this phase are broken down into these stages listed below:

Design of the system architecture

Design of the systems databases

Design of the system interface and

Packaging the design specifications

Software engineering (OOD and UML)

Help_DeskProgram_ConfigGetting_StartedStand alone entities

The software engineering phase entails all the stages and phases in the software development for the

system. The software development was made easy due to some methodology, techniques and

procedures that were adhered to. The software engineering traditional model (waterfall model) was

used for the project. It also applied the iterative model due to some processes and activities that

reoccur during the development phase. The diagram below gives the models

Figure 3.10 System Development life cycle

The system’s object oriented design OOD helps to identify the major object from the systems

requirement documentation. First all noun and noun phrase in the documentation was identified and

listed from which the object of the system was derived and developed understanding their various

relationship, association, that is the role they play, multiplicity which is the number of class object

participated in the association. It also aided in developing the elided diagram for the system which is

the major backbone for the system development. From the system requirement document noun and

noun phrase identified are shown below

Noun and Noun phrase identified from requirement document

Decision Making Production Economic Analysis

Make analysis Determine Price User Authentication

Report Generation Calculate Profit Help Desk

Data Validation Presentation Database storage

Economic predictions decision confirmation Assessment and review

Expert Managers Board of directors

These listed above in the table and some others provided the systems object needed for the

development of the object oriented design specifications for the proposed system P3 – ART. The

object identified from the table above and their attribute are shown below:

Decision

- Production: String

- Price: String

- Profit: String

<<Constructor>> Decision ( )

+ DSSPrice ( )

+ DSSProfit (No: Int)+ DSSProd (No: Int)

Object Name

Object Identifiers

Constructor

Object Methods

ART

- Analyze: String

- Report: String

- Value: String

<<Constructor>> ART ( )

+ Analysis (Data: String )

+ Report (Data: String)+ Validate (value: String)

Object Name

Object Identifiers

Constructor

Object Methods

P3_ART

+ Decision: String

+ Report: String

+ Analysis: String

Object Name

Object Identifiers+ Prog_Config: String

+ HelpDesk: String

+ User: String

+ UserReg: Boolean = true

+ Status: String = “Ready”

Production

- Result: String

- Recommendation: String

- Decision: String

+ DecisionMatrix ( )

+ Inference ( )

+ Simplex ()+ MarketData ( )

Object Name

Object Identifiers

Object Methods

User_Registration

- Username: String

- Password: String

- FirstName: String

Object Name

Object Identifiers- Role: String

- Address: String

- Email: String

- Surname: String

+ Status: String = “Valid”

Program_Config

- Name: String

- Version: Int

- Upgrade: Int

Object Name

Object Identifiers - Release: Int

- Registered_To: String

- Key: String

- Note: String

User_Authentication

- Username: String

- Password: String

- LoginAs: String

- DB_Connection: Boolean

Help_Desk

- Question: String

- Answer: String

- Recommendation: String

Object Identifiers

- DB_Connection: Boolean

Figure 3.11 System Object and attribute diagram

From the above diagram the systems UML 2 class diagram is developed. The diagram shows the

relationship, association and multiplicity of the objects. Note that the UML 2 class diagram is an

elided diagram that is it do not show the whole details of each object since most of them (the

necessary ones) have been elaborated above.

UML 2 Class Diagram

Figure 3.12 UML 2 Class Elided Diagram

P3 - ARTP3 - ARTHelp_DeskHelp_Desk User_Authenticatio

nUser_Authenticatio

n

Program_ConfigProgram_Config

RegistrationRegistration

UserUser ExpertsExperts B_O_DB_O_D

ManagersManagers

DatabaseDatabase

Data_And_InfoData_And_Info

What_IsWhat_IsGetting_StartedGetting_Started

DecisionDecision ARTART

History_LogHistory_Log

ProductionProduction PricePrice

ProfitProfit

SimplexSimplexDecision_Matrix

Decision_Matrix

FactualFactual

Economic_DataEconomic_Data

AnalysisAnalysis ReportReport

Price_Analytical_ToolPrice_Analytical_Tool Production_ReportProduction_Report

AboutAbout

LoginLogin

PresentationPresentation

Welcome_HighlightWelcome_Highlight

Program Flow Chart

The program flow chart gives a quick explanation of how the systems program is going to

function and operate. Though since flow charts do not completely conform to object oriented

design, therefore the flow chart do not completely show the full process of the system software.

Figure 3.13 Program Flow Chart

END

Start

Splash Screen

Is DB connection valid?

Is login

ok

Connection not ok

Login Validation

Main Form Interface and Menu

Welcome and Highlight

Login not Successful

Is menu select

ed

Process menu

Output

needs DB

connection

ODBC Interface

Output Message

Is menu processe

d?

Require feedbac

k

DATABASE

yes

no

no

yes

yes

no

yes

no

yes

no

no

yes

Database Design (data dictionary)

In developing the database, the stakeholders and users of the system were interviewed and

questioned. The results of the fact and data gathering techniques was use to develop a conceptual

database which eventually developed into the physical database (entity relationship diagram {ERD}).

The data dictionary for every entity (database field) and entity set (Tables) of the system new

database derived from the system ERD are shown below.

Entities and Their Attributes (P3 - ART).

BODFieldname Datatype Size Foreign Key Allow NullBOD_ID Integer 10 No No

Firstname Text 20 No No

Othernames Text 25 No No

Sex Text 20 No No

Contact_Address Text 50 No No

Telephone Text 20 No No

Level(High/Low) Text 12 No No

Login_ID Integer 10 Yes No

Status_ID Integer 10 Yes No

Date Date/time 12 No No

Time Date/time 12 No No

Table 1 BOD

Managers

Fieldname DataType Size Foreign Key Allow Null

Manager_ID Integer 10 No No

Firstname Text 20 No No

Othernames Text 25 No No

Contact_Address Text 20 No No

Telephone Text 50 No No

Department Text 20 No No

Level Text 12 No No

Login_ID Integer 10 Yes No

Status_ID Integer 10 Yes No

Date Date/time 12 No No

Time Date/time 12 No No

Table 2 Managers

Experts

Fieldname DataType Size Foreign Key Allow Null

Expert_ID Integer 10 No No

Firstname Text 20 No No

Othernames Text 25 No No

Contact_Address Text 20 No No

Telephone Text 50 No No

Login_ID Integer 10 Yes No

Status_ID Integer 10 Yes No

Date Date/time 12 No No

Time Date/time 12 No No

Table 3Experts

User_Registration

Fieldname DataType Size Foreign Key Allow Null

User_ID Integer 10 No No

Firstname Text 20 No No

Othernames Text 20 No No

Department Text 20 No No

Contact_Address Text 6 No No

Gender Text 30 No No

Department Text 20 No No

Status_ID Integer 10 Yes No

Role_Priviledge_ID Integer 10 Yes No

Login_ID Integer 10 Yes No

Date Date/time 12 No No

Time Date/time 12 No No

Table 4 User_Registration

Decision

Fieldname DataType Size Foreign Key Allow Null

Decision_ID Integer 10 No No

Analysis_ID Integer 10 Yes No

Report_ID Integer 10 Yes No

Module_ID Integer 10 Yes No

Expert_ID Integer 10 Yes No

Description Text 2000 No No

Approval Text 20 No No

Date Date/time 12 No No

Time Date/time 12 No No

Table 5 Decision

Analysis

Fieldname DataType Size Foreign Key Allow Null

Analysis_ID Integer 10 No No

Desc_MatrixID Integer 10 Yes Yes

Simplex_ID Integer 10 Yes Yes

EconomicDat_ID Integer 10 Yes Yes

Factual_ID Integer 10 Yes Yes

PriceAnalysis_ID Integer 10 Yes Yes

ProfitAnalysis_ID Integer 10 Yes Yes

Date Date/time 12 No No

Time Date/time 12 No No

Table 6 Analysis

Module

Fieldname DataType Size Foreign Key Allow Null

Module_ID Integer 10 No No

Name Text 20 No No

Description Text 100 No Yes

Category Text 20 No Yes

Date Date/time 12 No No

Time Date/time 12 No No

Table 7 Module

Report

Fieldname DataType Size Foreign Key Allow Null

Report_ID Integer 10 No No

Module_ID Integer 10 Yes No

Report_Details memo 2000 No No

Expert_ID Integer 10 Yes Yes

Manager_ID Integer 10 Yes Yes

Conclusion memo 2000 No No

Recommendation memo 2000 No Yes

Support memo 2000 No Yes

Summary memo 2000 No Yes

Reviewed Yes/No 20 No Yes

Date Date/time 12 No No

Time Date/time 12 No No

Table 8 Report

Login

Fieldname DataType Size Foreign Key Allow Null

Login_ID Integer 10 No No

Username Text 25 No No

Password Text 35 No No

Is_Who memo 20 No No

Security_Question Text 50 No No

Answer Text 50 No No

Date Date/time 12 No No

Time Date/time 12 No No

Table 9 Login

Status

Fieldname DataType Size Foreign Key Allow Null

Status_ID Integer 10 No No

Name Text 20 No No

Description Text 100 No Yes

Category Text 20 No Yes

Date Date/time 12 No No

Time Date/time 12 No No

Table 10 Status

Roles_Priviledges

Fieldname DataType Size Foreign Key Allow Null

Role_Priviledge_ID Integer 10 No No

Name Text 20 No No

Description Text 100 No Yes

Category Text 20 No Yes

Date Date/time 12 No No

Time Date/time 12 No No

Table 11 Roles_Priviledges

Help_Desk

Fieldname DataType Size Foreign Key Allow Null

Help_ID Integer 10 No No

Word Text 100 No No

Abbreviation Text 10 No No

Meaning Text 100 No No

Description Text 100 No No

Category Text 20 No Yes

Application Text 120 No No

Closely_Related Text 20 No Yes

Date Date/time 12 No No

Time Date/time 12 No No

Table 12 Help_Desk

Getting_Started

Fieldname DataType Size Foreign Key Allow Null

Tutorial_ID Integer 10 No No

Module Text 200 No No

Title Text 120 No No

Description Text 200 No No

Notes Memo 2000 No No

Recommendation Memo 2000 No No

Date Date/time 12 No No

Time Date/time 12 No No

Table 13 Getting Started

Program_Config

Fieldname DataType Size Foreign Key Allow Null

Config_ID Integer 10 No No

System_Name Text 50 No Yes

Description Text 500 No No

Version Integer 10 No No

Upgrade Integer 10 No No

Release Integer 10 No No

Registered_To Text 50 No No

Product_Key Text 30 No No

System_Requirement Memo 500 No Yes

Developed_By Text 30 No No

Copyright Text 50 No No

Date Date/time 12 No No

Time Date/time 12 No No

Table14 Program_Config

Production_Report

Fieldname DataType Size Foreign Key Allow Null

Production_Report_ID Text 20 No No

Product_ID Integer 10 Yes No

Amount_Produced Integer 20 No No

Day Text 3 No No

Month Text 3 No No

Week Integer 10 No

Year Integer 10 No No

Comment Text 200 No No

User_ID Integer 10 Yes No

Date Date\Time 12 No No

Time Date\Time 12 No No

Table 15 Production_Report

Products

Fieldname DataType Size Foreign Key Allow Null

Product_ID Integer 10 No No

Name Text 20 No No

Description Text 100 No Yes

Category Text 20 No Yes

Date Date/time 12 No No

Time Date/time 12 No No

Table 16 Products

Other database table includes welcome_highlight, Products, Price_report, profit_report, History_Log,

Object_Config and Presentations. Though their data dictionary not documented but they play important

role in the system and software development.

3.3.4 System Construction and Implementation phase

The system software was constructed with the given level of design specification. After

the software was fully constructed with several tools and techniques it was tested and audited to

assure its strength, stress control, adaptation, and quality. This eventually evolved into the

functional system. The construction phase was in two phase and stages firstly, to build and test

the system that fulfills all user requirements and design specifications and secondly, to implement

the interfaces between the new system and the existing system having a controlled changing over

plan.

In the construction stage of the system development, the database, application programs, user

and system interfaces were built with several development softwares. The application program

was written in Visual Basic. Visual basic was the best choice for the project considering the time

constraints and its event driven capability. Also since it requires no much coding since some of its

object can be created by just clicking and dropping. Also because of its flexibility and advance

user interface design and interaction. The database was constructed and created using mysql

server because of same reasons as visual basic and it easy handshaking to visual basic, backup

and recovery operations etcetera.

The implementation stage of the software development is the process of converting a system

specification into and executable system that is delivery to system owners. New systems usually

represents a departure from the way things are currently done; therefore there will be provision

for a smooth change over from the old system (Manual Decision System) to the new system (DSS

P3 - ART). Users will be trained on how to use, interact, manage and administer the system,

various manuals will also be developed to accompany the training and for future references. Also

files and databases will be installed, loaded including their various servers and supporting

software to ensure maximum operation ability of the system. The final system test that is testing

of the whole system will be carried out. In the implementation of the new system the parallel

change over plan will be use to change completely to the new system since the existing system

can’t be completely be shut down immediately. This also will enable monitoring the outputs,

report and deliverables of the system and to fully assure that the system can be acceptable and can

completely replace the existing system.

Also in installing the software there are some system requirement in both software and hard ware

so as the software for the system to function effectively and efficiently. The system’s minimum

installation requirements are as follows: -

Windows Version: 98, 2000, 2003, Xp and above. Also supports all 32-bit windows operating

systems.

Memory Capacity: Must have a minimum of 10MB of disk space for the installation and running

of the software.

RAM Capacity: 128MB SIMM or DIMM memory or more.

Display System: CRT/LCD monitor with screen resolution of 1024 by 768 and color quality of

32bit.

3.3.4.1 Software Quality Assurance

After the development of the software a software quality assurance was carried on the software in

order to ensure it meets software and software engineering standards, and the system owner

requirement. Some other checks on the software were software auditing, reporting functionality of

system and cost quality. The cost quality checks the developmental and operational cost to see if

they are balanced. Also the system was assessed based on security, strength, stress management,

adaptability (Operating Systems platform), memory usage, storage capability, database

connection capability, program generated error report system, system halt error check etcetera.

Some of these test and check are fully elaborated and explained in chapter four.

CHAPTER FOUR

SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION AND MAINTAINANCE PLAN

4.0 IMPLEMENTATION

The implementation stage as stated earlier is the stage that involves the integration of the whole

system, system delivery, system installation including several tests and quality testing, assurance and

evaluation. The network phase also was implemented in this phase and all supporting requirement met in

order for the computer network and interfacing to be implemented successfully. All hardware devices

necessary for the implementation of the system were also provided, tested and evaluated.

4.0.1 Network Installation and Implementation

From the design specification the network was planned and structured. The network floor plan was

developed which was a major consideration in order not to have communication failure and inefficiency

of the computer network. The server and client machine were installed in place and their necessary

operating system and other utility software were installed. Some of them are the driver utilities, firewalls

and antivirus to ensure security and other application packages which will support office management.

The switch, connecting devices and cables were installed and tested to ensure positive communication

between clients and server. The star topology was employed in the development of the network. Since the

system was not planned to be connected to the internet good Class C internet protocol (IP) addressing

system was used in the network to ensure smooth communication between clients and server machines.

The server was located in the server room while the client’s machine includes major offices like the

managers, experts, Directors and departments. This LAN network will go a long way to enhancing the

system. Documentation concerning the installation and implementation of the network was given to the

network administrator in order to effectively manage the network.

4.0.2 Database Installation and Implementation

After the successful development of the network, the database needs to be created and installed. From

the design analysis and specification of the systems database, the database was developed. The relational

database management software installed to manage the system database was my-sql server. This database

server was selected due to its simplicity, security, flexibility, compatibility, functionality etcetera. The

my-sql server software was installed in the server which will enable all clients to connect to it to access

and manage data via the my-sql ODBC connector which serves as a gate way for the clients to connect to

the system’s server database. The my-sql ODBC connector was installed on every client’s machine and

the server also. After successful installation and administration of the DBMS on the server, the database

P3_ART was created and configured. All entities, entity sets (tables), attributes, relationship and all other

database objects needed was created. The database was tested and evaluated with the design

specifications to ensure its strength and functionality.

4.0.2 System’s Program Installation and Implementation

All system’s program modules developed were compiled, debugged and were tested. The modules

were afterward integrated to produce the full working module of the projects software. The full software

and other specification necessary were packaged following the packaging specification in chapter three.

This is the package to be delivered to the system owners. The package does not have the software source

code included since it is not an open source project. The software then was installed and configured in the

clients and server machine. All system and installation requirements for the machine as stated in chapter

three were strictly adhered to. The software is to be operated from client’s machine and with the aid of

the ODBC connector the program of software on all clients machine can access the database on the server

via the computer network. The software as designed and constructed will require authentication before

access is granted to the system and its database from server. All other supporting software (proxy

software’s) were also installed and configured. It is also to be developed a system network management

software module in order to efficiently and effectively manage and monitor all clients’ from the systems

server.

4.1 System Testing Strategy

System testing or system validation is intended to show that a system conforms to its specification

and that the system meets the expectations and requirement of the system owners and users. The testing

involves subjecting the system to challenging difficulties. Test is, according to dictionary definition,

1. examination: a series of questions, problems, or practical tasks to gauge something’s knowledge,

ability, or intelligence

2. basis for evaluation: a basis for evaluating or judging something or somebody

3. trial run-through of process: a trial run-through of a process or on equipment to find out if it works

4. difficult situation: an often difficult situation or event that will provide information about somebody

or something

5. examination of part of Something: an examination of part of the something or aspects in order to

find something out, e.g. whether it is functioning properly or is infected

6. procedure to detect presence of something: a procedure to ascertain the presence of or the properties

of a substance

7. result of procedure: a result of a procedure to ascertain the presence of a substance

The system testing strategy involves the ordered laid out plan or procedure, analysed and broken down

for testing the system during and after its development.

The system testing involved processes, such as cross examination, inspections, evaluation, reviews. This

was done at each stage of the system and software process development ranging from the system and user

requirements definition to program development. The testing strategy involved several categories of

testing the first and major testing carried out right from the beginning of the system development cycle

was component testing.

Component (unit) testing which is also known as unit test is a test where individual components were

tested to ensure that they operate correctly. These components or units were tested independently and

separately without and interaction or involvement with other unit of the system. The components

involved started from the design phase of the system development. Inclusive to the whole testing the

software quality assurance and evaluation was also carried out to ensure a good standardization of the

software. Details or these testing categories are explained below.

4.1.1 System Design Test (The Dry Test)

From the leveled design specification, the system software was constructed. This eventually evolved into

the functional system. The design phase involved diagrams, table and chart. These objects were drawn

and created to model the functional system. Most of the UML 2 diagrams were tested this is called dry

test. The primary aim of the testing in this phase is to examine the diagram and to evaluate their

feasibility and functionality. The diagrams, the Entity relationship diagram (ERD) for example, were

tested to ensure they are in line, meets and they fulfill the system functional requirement.

The system design testing also included careful testing and examination of the system’s database design

and data dictionary to ensure they are well planned and design for functionality, reliability and to make

sure that all database problem of redundancy, repetition and database logical errors were solved and

avoided. The system and program flowchart were also evaluated by system analyst, designer, supervisor,

evaluators and counselors to ensure they are feasible and they do not contain logical or other category of

errors.

4.1.2 System Construction Test

Three major forms of testing were performed at this stage. They were the sub testing, System testing and

Acceptance testing

4.1.2.1 Sub Testing

A system is the combination and integration of several working sub systems. The system was divided

into several modules during the development planning stage in order to make the development easier,

more efficient and faster. These sub system were all tested independently in different levels. The different

subroutine and sub programs or program module were also tested for functionality, security and to

ascertain if they completely satisfy the system requirement documentation. Errors, loop hole discovered

were fixed and corrected. Inputs to theses sub program and database were tested and data validation plan

was developed in order to control the inputs to the system since the inputs are of very great importance to

the output and report.

4.1.2.2 System Testing

After all modules were integrated to make up the main system, it was finally tested by system testers,

penetration and security testers though all sub components or sub systems integrated to make up the

system have been tested. This process was concerned with finding errors that result from unanticipated

interactions between sub components and component interface problems. It was also was concerned with

validating that the system to check if functional and non-functional requirements were met.

4.1.2.3 Acceptance Testing

Acceptance testing is the final stage in the testing strategy. Before the system, after deployment was

submitted for operational use it was tested by the system users. The system was tested with real

organizations data supplied by the department and other data resources as shown in the system’s use case

diagram in chapter 3. The primary objective of the acceptance testing was to reveal errors and omissions

in the system requirement definition because the real data exercise the system in different ways from the

test data. It also test to see if the users and stakeholders of the system can effectively operated the system

without errors. The system also made available in a section or module for encountered error to be

reported by storing automatically or entered by the user when encountered this is more elaborated in the

maintenance and section in this chapter.

4.1.2.4 Software Quality Assurance And Evaluation

The American Heritage Dictionary defines Quality as “a characteristic or attributes of something.” As

a attribute of an item, quality refers to measurable characteristic, things that can be compared to known

standards. Some good measures of programs properties include cyclomatic, complexity, cohesion, and

numbers of function point, lines of code and many others. The design quality and quality of

conformance which is the degree to which the design specifications are followed during manufacturing.

The quality also goes further to ascertain user’s satisfaction and innovation. A quality control strategy

was employed to review, inspection, and test all software processes and activities to ensure that the

product meets the requirement placed on it and defined, measurable specifications. Software quality

assurance is an essential activities and task for quality assurance planning, oversight, record keeping,

analysis and reporting. These tasks or activities are carried out by the software engineer, the system

owners and users, project manager and the SQA group. The SQA group serves as the customer’s in house

representative. The primary aim of software quality assurance is to assure a conformance to the entire

stated functional, performance and user or customer’s requirement. Also to ensure that a high and good

standard was attained is another goal. Some of the quality factors are listed below: reliability, security,

strength, adaptability (OS), memory usage, storage capability, database connection capability, program

generated error report system, system halt error. Due to these factors the SQA plan was developed which

contain certain activities and task to be followed so as to efficiently ensure quality and carry out SQA test

and evaluation. These activities include:

- Evaluate reviews and audit software processes, models and methodologies.

- Process selection for work to be done and to make sure process conforms to organizations policy,

internal software standards and external imposed standards.

- Review software engineering activities to ensure and verify they comply with defined processes.

- Audit test and review carried on every software module both in design and implementation phase.

- Ensure design quality and conformance qualities are assured.

- Ensure that software engineering activities and work conforms to the documented procedure.

- Coordination of control and management of change. Analyze software metrics

- Carries penetration and security test.

- Compares software outputs with system, user and customer’s requirement.

- Review and evaluate system User interfaces, functionality and performance requirements.

Aside all these SQA activities other major factors considered when conducting the SQA was to attain the

attributes of good software these includes:

- Good structure and organization of the source program

- Increasing software response time.

- Understandability of program code

- High and good instructiveness.

- Simplicity and security

- Reliability, dependability, efficiency and usability.

4.2 System Maintenance And Support Plan

Maintenance is to ensure that something continues to work properly by checking it regularly and

making repairs and adjustments if required. The activities for maintenance are to maintain, sustain,

updates, repair, upkeep, encourage the continuation of something, serves as a means of support and

finally to keep something stable. It also promotes after service. The system after implemented cant be left

un maintained. A maintenance and support plan is developed to give active help and encouragement,

provide assistant to the system. The maintenance plan contains planned and structured approach to

performing maintenance and support activities for the system. There are three main categories of

maintenance to be carried by the designer and developer of the system in the plan. This category of

maintenance and other several maintenance and support activities forms the maintenance plan for the

system. However plan also included time and cost management. The system is to be checked for errors

and maintained once every month in order to enhance the usage of the system. The plan also included

support activities to the system so as to function effectively and effectively. These support were also

included as subset of the maintenance plan. The main aim for the maintenance plan was to encourage and

promote the usage of the system and to promote after service. The maintenance includes both hardware,

software, database and network maintenance. The maintenance plan also includes information about the

program update, versioning and release. In order to efficiently gather information for maintenance the

system software has a module for error report gathering. The software or program module gathers

information on errors generated by the program. They can be entered by the user and stored in the

database. Also the program can automatically store generated errors itself even without the knowledge of

the user. These error reports will be gathered by the developer by the time for maintenance and will be

give room for further work and are corrected. This goes a long way to enhancing the system performance

and functionality. The three categories for maintenance are explained below:

4.2.1 Corrective maintenance:- this is the most important part of the maintenance plan for the project.

Errors are bound to be found during the usage of the system either coming from the software, hardware

of human activity. These errors are communicated to the developers at time of maintenance to be

corrected. The maintenance plan also ensures a quick responding time for fixing emergency errors.

The next version of the system will include a telecommunication service (telephone short message

service SMS) and an email service which will generate quick alerting scheme to inform developers

automatically when errors or a problem occurs to be fixed even without the knowledge of the system

users. The error message will be reported through SMS to notify and report these errors. The cost of

monthly maintenance is going to be 10% of the total development cost as stated in the acceptance of

contract document for the system.

In order to enhance and to improve and promote productivity of the system, the corrective maintenance

was more concentrated on since it highly promote after service activity and it is cost effective since it is

also aimed at improving the quality id the system this maintenance plan will be done continuously after

the installation of the system for six months till the system is fully confirmed to be working 100%

effectively.

4.2.2 Perfective maintenance:- as stated earlier quality is a major goal for the system development.

The software quality assurance defines some quality and standards that should be met and attained and

are used to test and validate the system performance and standards. To perfect or improve the system

continuous update needs to be released or made to the system. These updates may be from the request of

the system users in the process of usage of the system graphical user interface. The GUI of the system as

planned should be very simple, easy to use and very interactive. The processing of the system should be

high and efficient. The response time should be high and efficient. The response time should also e

increased and a plan of introducing down time control and management for the system. All these may

result to some errors both physical and logical. This will lead to introducing new features and update for

the system to improve perfection. This maintenance is 40% of the total development cost and in the case

where an economic module outside P3 needs to be added will incur another separate charge say 10% the

total development cost but this can be negotiable. This is not going to be a regular maintenance since at

installation the system is tested and its requirement specifications met or are above 90%. The

maintenance may occur yearly or rarely twice a year.

4.2.3 Protective maintenance: - Protective maintenance has to do with providing the system with

protection in order not to hinder the smooth running of the system. This is not a major plan but it involves

recommendation on possible system security attack and how they can be handled. Plans on provision of

documentation, tools and procedure are going to be provided at implementation of the system.

Administrative training will be made also from time to time to ensure protection of the system. A

subscription to newsletter on security measures and strategy will also be put in place for the system

owners, users, and administrator to also assist and educate them about security and attacks.

4.3 Documentation

The user manual which is going to be developed will contain only the information’s of how to use the

system and to ensure the smooth and efficient usage of the system. The documentation is an elaborate

document. It involves all the activities of the system starting from the problem definition and statements

to project initiation, analysis, requirement documentation, information gathering and processing, data

specifications, installation, implementation and maintenance issues and plans. The user manual is also a

part of the documentation. Right from the project start and initiation, documentations were made even till

the delivery, implementation and closing of the project. Documentation is an activity that spans through

the development of the system. The documentation for every module after completion was reviewed by

experts, editors and project supervisors to ensure correct information and all errors we corrected and

edited to produce a high quality document. The documentation also includes various diagrams in

different chapters, the diagrams were reviewed to ensure that they comply and conform to the actual

physical designs and implementations. The documentation was made as elaborate as possible to ensure

that other system designers and developers could read it and get a very good understanding of the system

and its functionality to aid for easy continuation and guide for future research.

4.3.1 User Manual

In order to properly use the system after installation the user has to be trained and provided with an

appropriate document (user manual or user guide) in order to efficiently run the system without any form

of stress. The training programme as planned, will be done a week after the installation of the system

before it can be used completely.

The user manual contains the necessary information for the efficient usage of the system. The

information ranges from logical usage of the system, user interfaces, databases, report handling and

generation, monitoring the system, system administration, parts and functionality of the system and every

other important information concerned with using the system effectively. A vision of having the user

manual embedded into the system in the next version in the “getting started” or the ‘system tutorial’

section is still in progress. The user manual also includes network, installation and implementation

information and configuration issues.

4.4 Project Closing

The project in closing was provided with room for future research and update. The system after being

tested and executed was found to conform to the system’s functional and non- functional requirements

involved in the final activity (the decision table) before it was delivered to the system owners with all

copy of the documents of transaction. The decision table includes information regarding the project

development and usage with comments from the users of the system. The idea of the table was to gather

the thoughts of all users so as to test and evaluate the strength and other issues of the system which will

aid decisions for the system update plan, development and possible future research areas for the

improvement of the system.

In order to confirm what areas where satisfactory and what areas were not, people involved in the system

such as developers, stakeholders, users, system evaluators, system supervisors, project managers, system

administrators and system auditors were employed to give information on various sections of the system

development in order to make decision and plan for improvement of the system. The table is shown

below:

Management /

Systems

Decision Table

Analyst Developer Testers Project Manager Supervisor Evaluator Stake Holder Users

Quality H H H H H M H H

Cost M M M M M M H H

Schedule H H M M M M H H

Feasibility H M M M H M H H

Organization H M M H H H - H

Directing M M M H H M - -

Innovation H H H H H H - -

Design H H H M H H H H

GUI H H M M H M H H

Usage M M M M H M H H

Error Level L L L L L L L L

Complexity M L M M M M L L

Performance H H H H H M H H

Security H M M H M M H H

Management M H M H H H H H

Decision

High H X X X X X

Medium M X X X

Low L

After these candidate decisions were collected they were analyzed carefully from the table, also with the

number of candidate decisions and opinion some module were selected reviewed and included to the

system update plan.

CHAPTER FIVE

5.1 System Review of DSS for (P3 ART) Based on (PDSS-PPM)

The Project-Oriented Decision Support System for Production Planning in Make-to-Order

Manufacturing (PDSS-PPM) explained or reviewed in the literature review in chapter two is a system

built to process all planning for a specific ordering a particular product from the manufacturing

industries. It has become quite common for make-to-order manufacturing industries to use the

project-oriented approach for planning production runs on various time scales. The system was

developed to handle the manufacturing industries project which has been ordered by a customer. The

project handles the planning of all tasks or manufacturing processes involve in the manufacturing of

the ordered product. The task or processes have several characteristic and constraints which the

system can be able to evaluate and analyzed for effective planning. The planning of these processes

also involves timing which the system can also handle. The system keeps record for intensity of

various task and information flow from one process and materials to the other. The system manage,

organizes, plan and direct projects that must be carried out from the ordering of material, through

product design, to production and delivery to the customer. Based on the review of the system some

special module for the DSS for P3 – ART was developed. The DSS for P3 – ART though not a

system which operated strictly like the DSS for PDSS-PPM, is a DSS that also will help the

manufacturing industries to manage, plan, analyze and make decisions for the economic activities for

the industry. The system can help to predict future or stochastic changes in the nearest future for

production, Profit and Price. The system, with the aid of other supporting modules and functionality

developed will ensure smooth communication and information flow for the industry. The system also

has an efficient reporting tool which generates report on decisions, analysis and other data necessary

for the information. The system unlike PDSS-PPM does not operate on special ordering since all

production activities are in house and generally for all consumers and the market. The system P3 –

ART is not a project planning or organization system.

5.1.1 Difference between the two systems

This section brings out the main differences between the DSS for P3 -ART system

and the Project-Oriented Decision Support System for Production Planning in Make-to-Order

Manufacturing (PDSS-PPM). It does not define which system is more secure, profitable,

important or with greater benefit to the organization, industry or outside market.

Comparison of two DSS is not sufficient to analyze the systems security, quality,

functionality or performance in a rational way.

The table below point out briefly the main differences between the two systems.

Characteristic DSS P3 - ART (PDSS-PPM)

1 Time and Project Planning the DSS for P3 – ART do not actually plan project tasks against time

This the primary aim of this project or system

2 Product Ordering manufacturing planning and processing

No Yes

DSS for Economic Activities (P3)

Yes No

3 Stochastic predictions Yes No4 User inter

communicationEmbedded within module Not provided

5 feeding-precedence constraints of task and activity

No Major function

6 Daily record keeping of production

Yes No

Outlined and detailed design specifications

Yes Yes

Require internet connection

No (client server based system)

Yes

Part Of an ERP No YesApplication areas Commercial

manufacturing industriesProduction Planning Industries

Table 13 Differences between the two DSS

5.2 Intensity of the project

The intensity of the project was not too high since all available materials, tools and resources

were available. Information which is very important was not a problem to gather since the system owners

did not hold necessary information’s needed for the development of the system. Unlike some

organizations who find it very difficult to disclose certain important information’s which eventually lead

to the slowing down of the project. Also the supervisor of the project played a very important role in

reviewing, editing and correcting problems and errors of the project timely. I would say all hands were on

deck in the development of the project. The cost involvement for the project was carefully planned and

analyzed and feasibility studies carried out even before the commencement of the project. Though the

project after developed met the objectives and the system requirement, there were other new important

modules identified during the development of the project. These module like the inter user

communication system was not quickly identified there by causing a slight modification of the project

scope. In order not to over scoped and increase the intensity of the project the most important modules

were developed while the other were included in the maintenance plan and expectation of the next

extension X2 of the project or system. However during the development of the project or system some

few problems, limitation and constraints were also encountered they are identified and explained below;

5.3 Project Limitations and Constraints

As stated earlier the project during its development some little limitations and constraint were

encountered. This limitation mostly was due to incomplete or improper feasibility studies carried out.

Because of the situation of schooling I was not able to carefully take a good and long study and

observation of the case studies system. This went as far as affecting the development and scope of the

system. The system GUI though was okay and presentable, was not as expected since I had no enough

time to completely study graphic design and development. Time was another limitation. In order to get a

working version of the system quickly and ready for the mock presentation and project defense it did not

allow a proper evaluation and perfection of the system or project. Because of time limitation also the

project was not developed with java or visual basic.net programming APIs as planned since it is time and

resource consuming. Some of these problems, limitations and others encountered are listed below

5.3.1 Problems Identified

1. Time problem because of involvement in other schooling activities.

2. Graphical user interface Development

3. No availability of accurate information because of no complete fact findings

4. No reliable resource materials in the universities library (hard and soft resources)

5. No organized special training programme for systems development

6. Problem of distance from case study

7. Non steady Internet resources for research

5.4 Management Implications of the Project

The project was well managed; time schedule, cost, technicality and acquiring of resources were

all planned and drawn. Because of these planning the project didn’t really encountered any management

problems. The system owners and users were also considered and involved in the planning of the system

or project. The various task for the project or research were properly identified and studied and planned

with time and all other factors taken into consideration. A graphical chart was developed to show the

planned structure of the project. All risk and problems to slow down the development of the project were

also identified and managed thereby improving the management of the project. Playing most of the roles

in the development of the research made it not necessarily to give much attention to team management

and planning. It also gave me an opportunity to work and understand the roles and activities carried by

different actors and experts in project development. Following the system work plan strictly didn’t give a

room for little problems despite all other schooling and learning activity. Though much working and

stress involved, the project development was not too stressful because the work breakdown structure

(WBS) was design to be flexible and accommodate stress management.

5.5 Methods Used In Analysis

Several methods were used in the analysis of the system. To as-is system or existing system was

carefully studied and analyzed in order to find the systems problem and data was collected these data

ware also analyzed to truly confirm if the stated or identified problems of the system were really

problems and if they can be solved by either creating a new system or the redesign and re-engineering of

the system processes. Analysis were also made to state the systems requirement and specification.

Analysis was also done after the some of the development stages and phases of the system. All these

analysis provides data and information which are very necessary to the development of the system.

Various methodology or models for carrying out analysis were used together or separately so as to

efficiently analyze the system. These methodology or models include Object Oriented Analysis (OOA),

structured analysis, information engineering and fact finding techniques.

The Object Oriented Analysis (OOA) which is the most important methodology employed in the

development of the project involves analyzing the data collect from other fact finding techniques like

observation, experiment, questionnaire, interview, sampling etc. were carefully analyzed and object with

great importance identified, object which require information to be stored for was also identified. These

objects are very important since the system is an Object Oriented System. These objects was used

validate the requirement documentation from which it was identified. Most systems developed today use

the Object Oriented System Development (OOSD) methodology. This made me understand and gave me

a better opportunity to make further research and study for the system development methodology.

Though this methodology has been proven not too efficient for embedded system software development.

The reason is because the system do not just require object to be identified but they require a much more

information on the properties, characteristics, relationships and other deeper information. Thereby the

Component Based Methodology according to research was proved base on its advantages over the Object

Oriented Methodology to be best methodology in the development of embedded system software

development.

5.6 Findings Involved And Observed

To be able to implement a system such as this many tasks had to be undertaken. The first, after successful

and intensive analysis, was to decide upon the development methodology for the proposed system. When

choosing a development methodology many different options had to be considered carefully as the

chosen methodology would determine how all the subsequent tasks would be carried out. The feasibility

studies for the system also had an effect on the development methodology planning of the system.

Secondly before the design specification and development, was the requirement analysis and

specification. This document however was found out that the systems needed to many requirement to be

completed in just one version or release of the system’s software. Therefore a plan was developed for the

upgrade and release of the system in versions. Data was gathered even during the development of the

system using different data collection and gathering techniques. The one shown below is the research and

analysis questionnaire

5.6.1 Research Questionnaire And Interview

The research and analysis questionnaire was a means of gathering fact and findings for the system

development. Is was design to capture the necessary answers to questions which will enable the problems

of the existing system to be identified and to analyzed if they are really problems and to find out if they

can be solved thereby making it very easy for the requirement development for the system. The sample of

the questionnaire document is shown in the Appendix A. The Interview section was held with the

systems owner and management body so as to gather necessary information, problems identification, data

and to be sure that the problems identified were really problems. The interview sections also included

discussions on possible means, tactics, and strategies to solving the stated or identified problems. The

need for the project or a better system was also discussed and all necessary findings were gathered.

CHAPTER SIX

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Summary

Making decisions are very important to not just every organization or industry but also to human lives

and endeavors. Decisions for the economic activities for manufacturing industries should be made,

analyzed, managed and reviewed with proper care, attention and with an enhanced means other than a

manual system of management of decisions, analysis, report and data processing. The development of a

computerize decision support system which will handle data analysis, decision making, risk evaluation

and management, data and record generation and storage is inevitable after taking good observation and

critically analyzing the manual decision processing for Nice Cosmetics Nigeria Ltd. After good analysis

and understanding for the proposed system to be developed, objectives were set. The main objectives set

out for the development of this project were to develop a system that would computerize some of the

decision and data processing for the case study for basically Production, Price and Profit. Introducing a

computerize method, many of the tedious paperwork tasks that have to be carried out will be a lot easier

and faster. To be able to implement a system such as this many tasks had to be undertaken. The first of

these was the project initiation and proposal writing then to decide upon a development methodology for

the system. Next was the analysis for the current system, information gathering, data and information

review, planning of the project, requirement documentation, design specification and development,

software engineering and development, system testing and quality assurance, project execution,

implementation and delivery and then the project closing. The main challenge faced during the

development of the project was in getting as complete a picture of what was needed from the system

without taking time to detail every single aspect of it. Sequence of diagrams had been developed to model

every aspect of the development phases and dry test was conducted for every diagram or models for the

proposed system. The ERD and the physical database was developed and tested also. Thereafter before

the coding and software development, was the network planning and design for the system since the

system is to be implemented with client/server architecture. The system however because of time had a

limited scope and a good update, release, versioning and maintenance/support plan. The first working

model and sample will be released before the actual module of the system will be delivered.

5.2 Areas of Future Research

The project though successful base on its scope also has areas which were not considered because of

time, cost, technical availability and other external factors. These functions not included to the working

version of the project forms the area for future research or work for the project. The system covers only

P3 functionality or operations that is for only production, price and profit. However the system should

also include other economic activities like sales and marketing, advertisement, stock management,

distribution etc. but these were not included to the developed system. Also plans for the evaluation,

expansion and improvement of the current economic and decision system are in place. The research work

on this course is expected to continue in the foreseeable future. The project is a starting point for not just

the case study alone but for the industry at which the case study operates. It can focus initially on

validating and verifying the current prototype and design for this system for the re-engineering,

enhancement or the development of a like system. Extending the prototype implemented by the current

design of the system with more versions and development of more modules of the system will be a better

start point. Comparing this developed system and several trusted related computing base systems is a

schemes for measuring software diversity; implementing or reviewing the source code of several related

systems so that the project can certify the reliability and trustworthiness. The Decision support systems as

a critical information system also gets updated from time to time therefore research on other models for

developing a good Decision support system should not be overlooked. The testing plans for the system

can also be improved and enhanced. The Graphical user interface can be improved too. A better graphic

can be developed for the system also the complexity of the system. One point to note when building a

system is to make the interaction of the system simple (KIS: Keep it simple). A web application can also

be built to enhance and support the system. All these can be taken into consideration for future research.

5.4 Conclusions

Information today, are basic output for every organization or industry. Based on these information

intelligence are applied to them to generate knowledge. This knowledge is concrete, accepted and valid

information and is useful to every organization. This knowledge can also have a great effect on decisions

making activities for an organization. This information can be processed with a better and efficient

information system. This information system, decision support system to be specific can solve identified

problems in the manual operation of making and management of decision making. They are aimed at

improving the growth and development of the organization or industry.

Information should be processed efficiently and effectively with a high level of accuracy and

reliability also with a good and reliable storage function, report generation and management, risk

management and stochastic control gives a better and enhanced system.

Information decision support system, either expert based system or application can improve the

problem solving approach, method, strategies and other limitations. Decision making for economic

activities can be automated and computerize. This is the major aim of this research. The decision support

system developed is a data driven decision support system. It collects data provided by the economic

experts and can analyzes the data and the recommend decisions based on a mathematical and logical

model. The system also generates reports, and stochastic controls.

Decision support system is being implemented as a specialized part of business, and most companies

have actually integrated this system into their day to day operating activities. Since so many activities and

operation depends decision made this has made decision support systems to have a definite structure in

businesses and organizations, but in reality, most decision depends on data and these data change

sometimes very frequently.

The system P3{production, price and profit} and ART{Analytical reporting tool} is aimed

specifically to improve and promote productivity, personal efficiency, revenue control, report generation,

economic analysis and just in time information for decision making scoped for P3 only. However the

organization’s economic activities also include sales and marketing, advertisement, distribution, stock

control and management etc. so as to ensure growth, maximized profit and minimized cost. The system

was design to operate with minimal supervision and not necessarily require an expert to operate it. The

data can be feed into the system by authenticated users but the data have to be collected by an expert or

experienced personnel in order to ensure the provision and generation of correct and reliable decisions for

the system. A manual or user guide with complete documentation will be provided to assist on the usage

of the system.

The benefits of P3 DSS, and its applicability to many DSS environments, assure us

that the case study’s system is a useful system in practice. The system requirement

specifications was listed in the chapter four

5.3 Recommendations

The developed system P3 - ART is practical and can be used in many DSS

environments or manufacturing organizations. However the system would be most

secured and effective if implemented across diverse operating systems, platforms,

hardware, in a closed network. The system can be implemented in a single stand

alone computer system with the specified system requirement in place. Further,

basic network operating systems can be used when the system is to be used on a

network.

On the completion of this project, several issues concerning the effect of the usage and implementation of

the system arose, issues like; how effective and efficient the system will be on implementation, will the

decisions be profitable in the nearest future and how processed will the data be if done manually.

Therefore in order for the system to meets it requirement and to function effectively certain conditions

needs to be considered and put in place. This system can therefore be recommended for any

manufacturing and profit making organization for data and decision processing, it is also recommended

to be use in new and growing manufacturing industries to handle decision processing and report

management and it would be appropriate if this system could be studied and the loop holes identified and

fixed to make the system more secured and efficient. Finally it should be said that the system has been

very successful in achieving the objectives stated in the requirement documentation.

The system would yield the right results and outputs if

System and end users should be trained;

Since the system output depends on data valid and verified data should be fed into the system.

Appropriate roles and privilege should be given to all users of the system.

Network design, security and plan should not be overlooked.

Administration, auditing and management should be done for the system regularly.

All errors should be reported quickly as possible and should be saved to ensure effective

maintenance for the system.

All comments, report, recommendation and notes should be very clear and understandable.

Update should be made regularly.

Access to the server room or system resources should not be granted to unauthorized individuals.

Antivirus should be updated regularly. Also the system owners and users should be educated

about all system threats.

System change over procedure should be in parallel.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A.A. Thompson, Jr. and A.J. Strickland III, Strategic Management, 10th Edition, Boston: Irwin McGraw-Hill, Page 107.

Abraham Silberschartz, Henry Forth and S.Sudershan, Database System Concepts (Fifth Edition).

Beynon-Davies P. (2004) Database Systems (Third Edition). Claburn, Thomas Google Releases Improved MySQL Code(Information Week) Dean, Tom (2002), Programming Robots. Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Basic Classification Technical Details

Carnegie. Fowler, M UML Distilled Third Edition 2004, A brief guide to the standard Object Modelling

Language. Addison Wesley. Gary B. Shelly, Thomas J. Cashman and Harry J. Rosenblatt, System Analysis and Design.

Shelly Cashman Series Jacobson, I. – Object-Oriented Software Engineering: A Use Case Driven Approach.

Addison-Wesley, 1995. Jeffrey L. Whitten, Lonnie D. Bentley and Kevin C. Dittman System Analysis and Design,

Sixth Edition. McGraw-Hill Murdoch University, The Encyclopaedia of Computer Languages (Australia lists 8512

computer languages. MySQL Performance Benchmarks, Measuring MySQL’s scalability and Throughput (A

MySQL Technical Whitepaper, 2005). Oxford University Press, Special Price Edition 2001 Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Professor Jerome Bump, The Origin of Universities, University of Texas at Austin. Robin Schumacher, Arjen Lentz, Dispelling the Myths (MySQL AB). Selecting a Development Approach, Revalidated: March 27, 2008, Retrieved 27 Oct 2008. SIGPLAN (2003), Bylaws of the Special Interest Group on Programming languages of the

Association for Computing Machinery. Nice constitution, 2008, Handbook and operations manual. http://www.omg.org/gettingstarted/what_is_uml.htm http://pigseye.kennesaw.edu/~dbraun/csis4650/A&D/UML_tutorial/interaction.htm

APPENDICES

The appendix contains four categories; Appendix A, Appendix B, Appendix C and Appendix D. The

Appendix A gives detail information and format for data and information gathering, Appendix B shows

snapshot of systems software interface. samples of the generated reports and formats was shown in

Appendix C and Appendix D displays the some of the systems function module code.

Appendix A

QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE CASE STUDY:

Nice Cosmetics Nigeria Limited

LAGOS, NIGERIA.

PRESENTED BY: OMAGENE M. SHEYI

NOTE: Please fill in answer in the blank space provided. If answer exceeds line provided please indicate by continuing behind thus (Question number). Answer), but answers should be made clear, precise and as simple as possible. This questionnaire is to help us analyse your organization’s problem, gather data and information needed for the system development and to assist you with a way to tackle them so answer plainly.

1. Do the economic experts make, report and manage decision making for economic activities alone?

Answer: .........No........................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................

2. How many economic experts make decision at a time?

Answer: ....One for now.............................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................................................

3. How often are economic decisions made in the organisation and are there records of these decisions?

Answer: ..... When the need arises or when the experts find it necessary...............................................................................................................................................................................................

4. In the absence of the economic experts who makes the decisions?

Answer: ......The managers but he doesn’t carry out analysis....................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

5. How do you run your organization in decision making? Please tick one option(1) On a strict policy.(2) On a friendly policy.(3) On constitutional policy(4) None of the above. Please state your policy (.................................................................)(5) I don’t have a organization policy.

6. How do purchase and production goods record and report saved for your organization? How often are these record saved?

Answer: .....they are saved manually on papers and document, records for production are saved daily or after every production.............................................................................

.........................................................................................................................................

7. What models or strategies are used for decision making?

Answer: .......we use both analytical, data driven, mathematical, logical and factual information but they a probabilistic and involve risk which are also identified and managed.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

8. Who keeps or enter the necessary record?

Answer: .........the workers, expects, managers, supervisors even the directors depending on the data ................................

.........................................................................................................................................

9. What are the involvements of the managers or Board of directors in decision making?

Answer: .............Managers reviews and present data and information for the board of directors to confirm.............

10. How and where do you keep your daily records and reports?Answer: ........we have a section for our records where we dump the documents in shelves and drawers ....................................................................................................

.........................................................................................................................................

11. Do you have a designated security system or access authentication for information and processing in the organisation?

Answer: .......we work with keys to the sections and drawers..................................................................................

.........................................................................................................................................

12. What are the products produced by the organisation and they categorized?

Answer: ......Yes, I sell clothes, shoes, cosmetics and drinks and snacks..............................................

.........................................................................................................................................

13. How do the economic experts get or gathers his data for decision making?Answers: from data resources like the market, consumers, departments, etc

14. What are the problems you encounter in running your organization?

Problems of Security, reliability, consistency, performance and inefficient data processing and storage ......................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................... Now that you have successfully answered all questions accordingly and we have analysed your answers, we present you with a proposal to hopefully aid your services and reduce your problems. An application can be built to aid your organization, this application will:

1. Help with the daily registration of your workers2. keep a daily record of your activities.

3. Keep track of the daily, monthly and yearly Monterey values of your organization.4. Manage your decision making5. Enable you generate a printout of your daily, monthly or yearly report using a printer.

Added to this we will offer ideas for publicity and business improvement of which some of them will be implemented by us (a website can be built to help publicize your organization and handle electronic commerce and trading). Please note that all of this service will cost you a little as to effectively use this application you will be requiring:

1. A desktop computer fully installed and configured (software(s) needed for the computer are going to be provided) 2. A local area network.3. Printers.4. Printing sheets.5. A file to keep generated report.6. Stationeries.7. And other as specified by systems administrators and required

If you are satisfied with the above proposal then endorse this document else do not endorse it and write in the provided space what you want to be done to aid your organization then endorse. MANAGEMENT

Signature..................................................

Date......22/10/2009..................

Your proposal:

MANAGEMENT

Signature.......................................

Date.......................................