IMPLEMENTING USABILITY IN AN ONLINE HOSTEL BOOKING SYSTEM: A

CASE OF KENYA METHODIST UNIVERSITY

BY

NTONGAI GLORIA KATHONI

(BIT-001-0194/2008)

A proposal for a Project to be Conducted in Partial Fulfilment of the

Requirements for the Degree in Bachelor of Science in Information Technology

Information Technology Department

Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology

2010

Supervisor:

Name...............................................................Signature.....................................................................
TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS..........................................................................................................ii
TABLE OF FIGURES:...........................................................................................................iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION......................................................................................4
1.0 BACKGROUND INFORMATION..............................................................................4
1.1 The Statement of the problem..............................................................................................4
1.2 The Objectives......................................................................................................................5
1.3 Research Questions..............................................................................................................5
1.4 Importance of the project......................................................................................................5
CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY....................................................................................6
2.0 Structured System Analysis and Design Method................................................................6
2.1 Stages of Methodology...................................................................................................6
2.1.1 Feasibility study.....................................................................................................6
2.1.2 Requirements identification...........................................................................................6
2.1.3 Requirements specification and analysis.......................................................................6
2.1.4 Design...........................................................................................................................6
2.1.5 Implementation.............................................................................................................6
2.1.6 Testing...........................................................................................................................6
CHAPTER THREE: PROJECT TIME PLAN.......................................................................7
3.1 Project Time Schedule...................................................................................................7
The table below outlines the activities of the second semester...................................................7
SECTION ONE......................................................................................................................10
4.1 System Resources...............................................................................................................10
4.1.1 Hardware Requirements..........................................................................................10
4.1.2 Software Requirements.........................................................................................10
SECTION TWO.....................................................................................................................11
5.0 BUDGET AND BUDGET JUSTIFICATION............................................................11
5.1 Projected Budget.................................................................................................................11
TABLE OF FIGURES:
Figure 1:Gantt Chart.......................................................................................................................8

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1:Project Time Plan..............................................................................................................7

Table 2:Budget Estimates.............................................................................................................10
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.0 BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Kenya Methodist University is one of the major higher learning institution in Kenya. It
began in 1997 as a theological college. It is situated in Meru . It has several campuses
affiliated to. The University offers several courses which include; Business Information
Technology, Nursing, Human resource, Theology, Education and counselling . As a
result it enrols a large number of students every year to take the different courses it offers.
It has over 4000 students and enrols about new 900 students every year.

1.1 The Statement of the problem

At the beginning of every academic year students are required to book rooms for their
accommodation. There is a system in place which is used to store information about the
students but the booking is done manually where students are required to fill given forms
so as to secure themselves rooms . This manual process is slow, inconveniencing and
tedious.. The problems associated with the current system are:

1. Time consuming; This is because a lot of time is taken by the students to fill the
forms and similarly more time is taken to verify that the correct details are filled
before a student is given a room and transferring information from the forms and
storing them in the system.
2. Congestion at the boarding offices and this causes occurrence of several errors in
the process and to correct such errors at a later time is costly and inconveniencing.
3. A lot of space is occupied by the storage of paper based files
 Proposed solution
I therefore propose to come up with a system that enables students to book rooms via the
internet .This will involve coming up with a system whereby the student will be able to
acquire rooms without necessarily having to travel to school as long as the student has
access to the internet. The proposed project is aimed at increasing the efficiency and
effectiveness of booking rooms to the students.

1.2 The Objectives

1. To develop an online room booking system.
2. Research on how to implement usability in an online booking system.
3. To come up with a system documentation.

1.3 Research Questions

1. How can usability be implemented in an online booking system?

2. What are the design approaches and techniques that are used in designing and
implement usability in an online booking system?

1.4 Importance of the project

There is need to fully automate the system current in use. The aim of this project is
to come up with a system which will be efficient to the students as they can book rooms
online, from anywhere as long as there is access to internet. Hence the students do not
have to move up and down from one office to another so as to secure a room. The project
will be aimed at coming up with a usable system that is easier to learn to use so as to
satisfy the user’s needs and it will be more efficient in that less time will be taken to
accomplish the task and also reduce paper work hence it will help the University to cut on
cost spent on stationery.
CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY

2.0 Structured System Analysis and Design Method

The methodology to be used in the development of the system is the Structured System
Analysis and Design Method which is a systems approach to the analysis and design of
information system. SSADM has a systematic and standard approach to analyse work and
changing phases for quality production and enhanced results. The major advantage of this
methodology is that the output of the previous phase is the input of the next phase. It will
involve the application of a sequence of analysis documentation and design tasks
involved in the following stages:

2.1 Stages of Methodology

2.1.1 Feasibility study

This stage will be concerned with the analysis of the current system and to determine
whether the proposed system is feasible. Feasibility study will put into consideration the
following areas and answer the underlying question in each area:

 Technical feasibility: is the project technically possible?

 Financial feasibility: How affordable is it to carry out the project?
 Organizational feasibility: will the new system be compatible with the existing
practises?
 Ethical feasibility: will the impact of the new system be socially acceptable?

2.1.2 Requirements identification

This stage will involve collection of requirements from the users through administering
questionnaires and conducting interviews on the users of the system. In this stage DFD’s
will be used to produce detailed logical models of the current system and they will be
refined to cater for the new and changed requirements.
2.1.3 Requirements specification and analysis
This will be concerned with definition of the new requirements. Detailed functional
requirements which are use cases that describe all the interactions with the software and
non-function requirements are identified and new techniques are introduced to define the
required processing.

2.1.4 Design
This is concerned with the physical and logical design of the system based on the analysis
of the identified user requirements so as to meet the needs of the users.

2.1.5 Implementation
This stage will be involved with writing of the actual code for the proposed project.

2.1.6 Testing
It will be concerned with giving the system to the user and they are allowed to interact
with it to find out if it meets the specified requirements.
 CHAPTER THREE: PROJECT TIME PLAN
3.0 TIME PLAN

3.1 Project Time Schedule

The table below outlines how the activities will be carried out in the first semester indicating the
proposed start and end date of every activity .
S/ Activity Duration Proposed Proposed Actual Actual end Deliverables
No (hrs) Start End date start date date
date
1 Draft Proposal 21 18/6/2010 1/7/2010 26/6/2010 02/07/2010 Draft Project
writing proposal document
2 Revising Draft 15 4/7/2010 8/7/2010 07/7/2010 16/07/2010 Final Project
Proposal proposal
3 Literature Review 40 10/7/2010 29/7/2010 18/07/2010 Literature Review
report

Table 1:Project Time Plan for the first semester

Project Time Plan for second semester

The table below outlines the activities of the second semester

S/ Activity Duration Proposed Proposed Actual Actual end Deliverables

No (hrs) Start End date start date date
date
4 Feasibility 45 1/8/2010 19/8/2010 Requirement
Study Specifications
5 Detailed 34 23/8/2010 10/9/2010 Logical Design
Analysis and Structure
Design
6 System 36 12/9/2010 5/11/2010 Running System
Coding and units
Testing
7 BETA Release 32 6/11/2010 3/12/2010 Complete Running
system

Table 2:Project Time Plan for Second Semester

 June July August September November -December
TASK 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Feasibility study

Proposal Writing

Data collection

Data analysis

Literature review

Break

Requirement
analysis

Logical Design

Physical Design

Design and Coding

Module testing

Integration and

Testing

Implementation

Documentation

Presentation

Figure 1:Gantt Chart

9
10
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Gantt Chart

The Gantt chart above illustrates the steps that will be taken in the process of coming up with the
proposed system. The chart displays the activities that will be undertaken in each of the weeks
that will follow until the completion of proposed system. The purpose of the chart is to provide a
guideline into the steps and the time line required to produce a working system and an
accompanying documentation

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 SECTION ONE

4.1 System Resources

4.1.1 Hardware Requirements

 Pentium 4 Dual-Core Computer to run the system and must have the following
requirements
 80 GB hard disk for data storage
 1 GB RAM for optimal system performance
 Tape drives for regular backup and recovery operations
 Laser jet Printer for printing of data reports.
 An Uninterruptible Power Supply(UPS) to protect the system from power
interruptions.
 Modem for connectivity to the internet

4.1.2 Software Requirements

 Dreamweaver 8 for web development
 Windows XP or higher operating systems
 Wamp server.
 MySQL Server for the database.
 Flash media
 Antivirus software for protecting the computer against threats such as
viruses.

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SECTION TWO

5.0 BUDGET AND BUDGET JUSTIFICATION

5.1 Project Budget

S/No Item Quantity Total (Kshs.)

.
Table 3:Budget
1. Pentium IV-Dual
Estimates 2 80,000
Core computer.

2. Laser jet Printer 1 7,000

Note: The amounts
3. Uninterruptible
1 5,000 indicated above
Power Supply(UPS)
are the approximate
4. Printing
values 5 1,500 of the
Papers(Reams)
resources but
the costs 5. Optical are subject to
10 300
change Discs(DVD) in prices
6. Tape Drives 3 4,500

7. miscellaneous 2,000

Total 98,300

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