CHAPTER

ONE
Chapter One: Introduction – Nigerian Citizens Registration Management System In Sudan

INTRODUCTION
In almost every case, information is an organization’s primary asset and keeping
that asset safe, organized and accessible is of utmost importance. The demand
for acquiring, processing and distributing data is growing enormously. With this
growing demand, the need for secure, reliable, faster, accessible and efficient
storage that result in higher productivity and efficiency is required as well.

The largest growth in most economies is coming from 'information' industries.

The success of such knowledge-based organizations lies in their information
systems. Also, forced by technological change and globalization of markets,
many organizations are placing increasing emphasis upon information systems.
Information systems are more than just computer programs. Though
information and communications technologies are playing an increasing role in
meeting organizations’ information needs, an information system is a much
more general concept. It refers to the wider systems of people, data and
activities, both computer-based and manual, that effectively gather, process,
store and disseminates organizations’ information. [1]
There are various types of information systems, for example: Transaction
Processing Systems, Decision Support Systems, Knowledge Management
Systems, Database Management Systems, and Office Information Systems.
They are typically designed to enable humans to perform tasks for which the
human brain is not well suited, such as: handling large amounts of information,
performing complex calculations, and controlling many simultaneous processes.
Although solving large problems within an organization is still in practice,
Information Systems professionals’ have the ability to automate these solutions
via programmable technologies without violating the organization’s ethical
principles. A series of methodologies and processes are used in order to develop
and use an information system. Many developers have turned and used a more
engineering approach such as the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
which is a systematic procedure of developing an information system through
stages that occur in sequence, which are: [2]
 Feasibility Study
 Requirements Collection and Analysis
 System Design
 Coding/Implementation
 Testing
 Maintenance and Review

By Suleiman Umar Abdullahi, Supervised by Dr. Awad Mohamed 1

Chapter One: Introduction – Nigerian Citizens Registration Management System In Sudan

An information system is not only the technology an organization uses, but also
the way in which the organizations interact with the technology and the way in
which the technology works with the organization’s business processes.

As an end-result, Information Systems professionals have a broad business and

real world perspective to implement these technology solutions that enhance
organizational performance, to manipulate and transform information into
different kind of reports which will make that information more valuable than
ever to the organization. Manual or paper manipulation of data into reports has
proven to be error prone and cumbersome. In many cases, undetectable error
slips without the user knowing, and re-creation of that same report will be
costly.

1.1 ABOUT THE SITE

Nigerian Embassy in Sudan is experiencing growth in its number of citizens,
each citizen is suppose to register with the embassy if he/she is staying longer
than two weeks in this country. In the past, many citizens are not serious about
the registration program. The Embassy has recently imposed new regulation,
that no citizen will be attended for any non-essential services, unless he/she is
registered with them.

Citizens are now embarking on the registration program with eagerness like
never before. Newly arrived and late informed old-comers are registering
regularly. This makes the files cabinet booming everyday and the office seem
less organize. In more years to come, with this same system, things will
definitely be in substandard.

1.2 PROBLEMS STATEMENT

The current system is 85% manual. Every time they will attend to a citizen –
they first have to ask him to register, open a hardcopy file for him, saves his
basic information in Microsoft Excel (i.e. his name, passport number, state and
date of birth for quick generation of statistical report), take his file to the
appropriate office, render him the service and then return his file to the files
cabinet.

Next time he come, they will ask for his name, search in their files cabinet, find
his file, take his file to the appropriate office, render him the service, document

By Suleiman Umar Abdullahi, Supervised by Dr. Awad Mohamed 2

Chapter One: Introduction – Nigerian Citizens Registration Management System In Sudan

down or make a duplicate copy and put it in his file record, etc. And anytime
another office requested for his file, the same procedure has to be repeated again
and again.

On average, The Embassy serves 15 – 20 citizens daily, 75 – 100 weekly, 300 –

400 monthly using the system describe above. Imagine how much time, energy
& cost are spent in addition to other non-citizen services (like visa applications,
investment process, diplomatic affairs, etc)? Due to this new regulation, delay
time, interruption and waiting time to attend to people has increased
dramatically.

Moreover, no matter how much safety and care is taken in this kind of system -
a citizen file might be stolen, hidden, misplaced or fall into the wrong hands
which poses a privacy and security threats.

1.3 PROJECT OBJECTIVES

1.3.1 GENERAL OBJECTIVE
The main aim of this project is to design and develop a secure and reliable
database system for the citizens’ registration with a familiar Graphical User
Interface that might not need prior user training before use for ease of data entry
and retrieval for The Nigerian Embassy in Sudan.

1.3.2 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

 Generation of complex statistical report easily
 A sophisticated search method
 Ability to backup database to avoid unforeseen disasters
 Optimized information and records organization
 Unified and consistent data sharing
 Extensibility of use

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Chapter One: Introduction – Nigerian Citizens Registration Management System In Sudan

1.4 PROPOSED SYSTEM

To convert the current manual system into a fully computerize database system,
which will gather, store, process, retrieve and share information of all citizens
over a network..

The proposed system will enable a staff that is in charge to register a citizen,
saves his record and render him any service instantly. The new saved
information will be available to all offices that are eligible for the access of it
immediately. The citizen can now be attended in any office without carrying his
files with him. Any note or remark can be added to his record from the system.
Moreover, the Embassy can generate a complex statistical report on different
criteria anytime or when the need arises without any difficulty.

1.5 EXPECTED CONTRIBUTIONS & IMPORTANCE

OF THE PROJECT
 Maximize staff productivity
 Reduce delay and waiting time
 Optimized information and records organization
 Printing of citizen information easily
 The new system will relieve the Embassy staffs from taking citizens file
from one office to another.
 A familiar user interface, the users don’t necessarily need a prior user
manual to operate the system.
 Upgrades and updates of the backend Database Management System will
be taken care of behind the scenes (i.e. from a central server) , resulting in
more time to focus on the citizens and provision of services instead of
dealing with technical issues on every machine.
 Backing up database to a desired location whenever needed to avoid
unforeseen disasters.
 Improved information access results in increased usage and visibility
making the Embassy more productive.
 Increased manageability and maintainability of records
 Extensibility of use

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Chapter One: Introduction – Nigerian Citizens Registration Management System In Sudan

 More secure, efficient and reliable system

 Unified and consistent data sharing
 Cost reduction, high availability, less room space consumption, etc.
 Generation of complex statistical report which will enable the Embassy to
predict their budget on citizens’ expenditure and growth estimation
 A sophisticated search method

1.6 SCOPE OF THE PROJECT

The scope of this project will only cover Nigerian citizens’ registration, reports
creation based on certain criteria, basic administration of staffs that will be able to
access the system and sharing of citizens’ information over a network in the
Nigerian Embassy in Sudan. Each section will be covered adequately.

1.7 PROJECT PLAN & METHODOLOGY

The tools and methodologies that will be use in this project are as follows:

STAGE TECHNIQUE/TOOL/ METHODOLOGY

Requirement collection and
Observation, Sampling of data and interviews
analysis

Database Design Relational Model

System Design Object Oriented Analysis and Design (OOAD)

Backend - Database
MySQL V5.1
Implementation
Frontend – Graphical User
Visual [Link] 2008
Interface (GUI) implementation

Table 1.1 – Project Plan & Methodology

Combination of different methodologies on different stages as in the table above

will produce a hybrid methodology, which is the latest trend in software
development.

By Suleiman Umar Abdullahi, Supervised by Dr. Awad Mohamed 5

 Chapter One: Introduction – Nigerian Citizens Registration Management System In Sudan

Effective software project management is crucial for the success of any software
project. There are numerous instances of software projects ending up as failures
not for lack of competent technical professionals or resources, but due to the use
of faulty software project management practices. [3]
The main goal of software project management is to enable a group of software
engineers to work efficiently towards successful completion of a project. For
this project, my supervisor – Dr Awad Mohamed will serve as my project
manager.

Project planning consists of the following important activities:

 Effort, cost, resource and project duration estimation

 Risk identification , analysis, reduction and prevention
 Project scheduling
 Staff organization and staffing plans
 Miscellaneous plans such as quality assurance plan, configuration
management plan, etc

Estimation of effort, cost, resource, and project duration is an important

component of project planning.

N.C.R.M.S.S
(Final Thesis)

Start Requirement Design Implementation Test Finalize

Documentation Specifications (Code) Documentation

Database Program Database Part Program Part

Design (GUI) Design

Fig 1.1 - Work Breakdown Structure of N.C.R.M.S.S

The development of such a system depends mainly on the user requirements

that define the type and size of such a system.
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Chapter One: Introduction – Nigerian Citizens Registration Management System In Sudan

1.8 THESIS ORGANIZATION:

Chapter two presents the requirements collection and analysis of the current
system. Chapter three describes the system design of the proposed system. In
chapter four, implementation of the system is explained. While in chapter five,
conclusion is drawn, and recommendations, strengths and limitations are
mentioned.

By Suleiman Umar Abdullahi, Supervised by Dr. Awad Mohamed 7