Introduction to Movers Transport System Project
Introduction
The 2021 KCSE Computer Project has been
out for a while now. As usual, candidates are required to complete the project
in 7 months. As with 2020’s project, candidates are expected to submit their progress
twice - the first milestone MUST be completed and score keyed in by 30th
October 2021 and the second milestone similarly by 31st January
2022. Needless to say, a candidate’s second milestone should be seen to be
building on the first milestone. There is no particular point in project
development that has been specified to demarcate as the first milestone, it is
entirely up to individual candidates to decide wisely.
This year's project is
titled ‘Movers Transport System’. Candidates are required to
develop a well-documented database system for a hypothetical transport company.
The company, ‘Movers’ provides transport for various agricultural goods for
farmers between farms and retail outlets. The company also transports farm
inputs to the farms.
Registration – to access the company’s services,
large scale farmers register individually as members of the company whereas
small scale farmers are registered in groups of at least 5 small scale farmers.
Once registered as a group, the group of small-scale farmers can order for
transport as a unit.
Transport
cost – the cost of transporting
agricultural produce/farm inputs is based on the means of transport, load
capacity and destination (cost per km). Vehicles are serviced and fuelled
before each trip and the expenses incurred recorded. Each vehicle is assigned
loaders whenever it is assigned a transportation task. Drivers are paid a
minimum of Ksh. 2000/= per trip while loaders are paid a minimum of Ksh. 200
per vehicle loaded. All these must be factored in computing the cost of a trip.
Drivers - Each vehicle owned by the company is
assigned a specific driver who is responsible for the vehicle and ensuring that
the cargo arrives at its destination in good condition. Drivers who commit
offences in the course of transporting goods are surcharged. A driver is served
with a warning letter if surcharged three times. If a driver is served with a
warning letter and goes ahead to commit another offence, he/she is suspended
for one month. Drivers who are suspended twice within 6 months have their
services terminated. In simple terms, such drivers are sacked.
Tax
– The company remits 20% of the total
revenue as tax to the government.
Key aspects of Fedha Youth Group system project
1. The ability to store (in tables) details of large-scale farmers, details of groups of small-scale farmers and details of small-scale farmers.
2. The ability to store (in a table) details of vehicles owned and operated by Movers Company.
3. The ability to store (in tables) details of loaders and drivers.
4. The ability to store (in tables) details of trips including vehicle expenses.
5. The ability to store (in tables) details of offences committed by drivers.
6. The ability to compute the cost of each trip to the customer.
7. The ability to compute the cost of each trip to the company.
8. The ability to compute the revenue generated from each trip.
9. The ability to compute the tax payable per trip.
10. The ability to compute total company expenses.
11. The ability to compute the company’s overall profit.
12. The ability to generate various other reports that may be necessary.
What you need to come up
with a good Movers Transport System project.
This project is pretty
straight-forward. You’ll need:
A database management system: Most if not all schools
use Microsoft Windows in their computer labs. I recommend Microsoft Access 2010
or higher. MS Access 2010 has some important features not available in Ms
Access 2007.
Creativity: You have been tasked with
computerizing operations of Movers Company. Don’t make the common
mistake of developing a half-computerized system - Computerize as much
operations as possible, don't design a calculator! Also note that some
operations CANNOT be computerized when developing using a database
management system - find a way to minimize such instances and ensure tight
integration with the computerized operations.
Solid planning: This is very important.
Don't be in a hurry. Take your time to visualize how you want your system to
look like, develop a roadmap starting with the basics. 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
basic tables and queries you need. Some obvious tables include a large-scale
farmers’ details table, a vehicles’ details table and a drivers details' table.
Open-mindedness: Projects are rarely 'easy'
More often than not, implementing some question requirements will be a hard nut
to crack. Some concepts you may need to use to complete your project
successfully might not been taught to you in a classroom scenario. Be curious,
utilize the Internet and other resources to learn new formulae, functions etc.
Security: You can achieve this
through password-protecting your database as well as regularly backing it up.
Once you reach a self-defined milestone, I recommend you save two copies of
your Movers Transport 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.
© Access Pro Kev
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