Introduction to Golden Wall School Inventory System Project
Introduction.
The 2018 KCSE Computer Studies project
is out. This year’s project is not as complex as KCSE 2017’S Computer Studies
project but this is not to say it is a walk in the park: it definitely is not.
One thing that stands out in this year’s project is its flexibility in terms of
what you as a student can come up with: all you need is to computerise the
operations of Golden Wall Secondary School in your own way while still
maintaining the core procedures laid down in the question.
What
you need.
i.)
A database
management system: This could be Microsoft Access 2007, Microsoft Access 2010,
Microsoft Access 2013 or Microsoft Access 2016. I don’t know if there are
schools in this country whose Computer Studies students use Linux-based
Operating Systems or Macintosh. Those can use Libre Office or MS Access for Mac
or whatever they use. I presume most if not all schools use Microsoft Windows.
I recommend Microsoft Access 2010 or higher. My tips and tricks may not be
compatible with Access 2007 also.
ii.)
Creativity:
You need to be able to see how to computerise those manual operations at Golden
Wall Secondary School. Some of those operations need to be consolidated while
some need to be eliminated. You should be able to see this because the Golden
Wall School Inventory System is a computerised system. You also need creativity
to tell what reports need to be generated by the system.
iii.)
Solid
planning: You have to visualize on paper how you want your Golden Wall School
Inventory System to look like first before embarking on the design lest you
will meet endless obstacles. Even with a plan, you will meet a few obstacles
but you will be able to go back and make corrections if you have a plan. In
this case, a plan basically involves coming up with the tables you need. Some
obvious tables include a Students details table, a Staff details table and a
Supplier details table. The non-obvious ones include an Item details table, a
Requisition orders table and more.
iv.)
Examples of
database-based inventory systems to give you an idea of how a database-based
inventory system’s design looks like. You can download such from
v.)
Security:
You can achieve this through password-protecting your database as well as
regularly backing it up. Once you reach a milestone, I recommend you save two copies
of your Golden Wall School Inventory System and proceed with one copy. This way
if you face hurdles in design or something happens like accidentally deleting a
table or a query, you can always go back to the other copy and proceed from
there.
#Tip 1
Keep it simple. In this project one
crucial element is the aspect of departments. It is inevitable that one of the
first things you’ll have to do is to conceptualize Golden Wall Secondary
School’s departments. Keep things simple and work with a handful of
departments. Once you have the system up and running, it will be much easier to
introduce more departments.
Core
concepts of Golden Wall School Inventory System Project.
These are aspects that must be seen in
your final submission:
i.)
The ability
to submit requisition orders by various heads of departments securely e.g. the
library head of department should only submit requisition orders for library
items.
ii.)
The sole
privilege of the principal to approve, reject or defer requisition orders. An
ordinary system user should not be able to do this.
iii.)
The ability
of heads of department whose departments have permanent inventories to issue
items in those departments e.g. computers and books. Like in (i) above a head
of department should only issue items in his or her department.
iv.)
The ability
of the system to impose fines and store records of fines when items issued to
teachers and students are lost. Though not stated in the question, a good
addition would be the ability to clear those fines after the items are replaced
by the student/teacher responsible.
v.)
The ability
to record usage of items in the consumable and expandable inventories leading
to reduction of stock.
vi.)
The ability
to notify heads of departments of low stock of items in their departments after
(v).
vii.)
The ability
to receive new items after requisition orders have been made and approved as
outlined in the question. Some items should be accepted, others put on hold as
well as others rejected.
viii.)
The ability
to compare received items details and requisition order details
ix.)
The ability
to sort received items into their different inventories and departments
seamlessly.
x.)
The ability
to generate relevant reports.
Tips
and tricks
I will post some tips and tricks once
in a while on the blog. Stay tuned and keep trying. To stay informed, like my
Facebook page here.