Student Records System Design

FOR STUDENT RECORD SYTEM DESIGN

PURPOSE OF THE SYSTEM

The system maintains records of students, the courses and modules on which
they are registered and the outcome of their studies. The application is distributed
application because the data is stored centrally by the university but accessed by
academic staff and administrators across the university. Students also access the
system to view their results. The real system would be service oriented and would
expose some of its functionality as a set of services which could be consumed by other
applications.

PROBLEMS IN THE EXISTING SYSTEM

The future of the existing system has to be seen as one of continuous change,
where the information that is stored is of increasing complexity and quantity. The
existing system is required to provide a useable and well managed interface for student,
academic and administrator users to view and manipulate the data for which it is
responsible. For each it must allow the rapid formulation and resolution of queries
related to the student information. There is also a requirement for the system to interact
with other information sources as required, both as an information source and as a
consumer of related information during the resolution of queries.

SOLUTION OF THESE PROBLEMS

The development of this new system contains the following activities, which try to
automate the entire process keeping in the view of database integration approach.

● User Friendliness is provided in the application with various controls provided by

system Rich User Interface.

● The system makes the overall project management much easier and flexible.

● It can be accessed over the Intranet.

● The student information can be stored in centralized database which can be

maintained by the system.

● This can give the good security for user information because data is not in client
machine.

● Authentication is provided for this application only registered students can access.

● There is no risk of data management at any level while the project development is
under process.

STUDY OF THE SYSTEM

 Student Records System Design

In the flexibility of uses the interface has been developed a graphics concepts in
mind, associated through a browser interface. The GUI’s at the top level has been
categorized as follows

1. Administrative User Interface Design

2. The Operational and Generic User Interface Design

The administrative user interface concentrates on the consistent information that

is practically, part of the organizational activities and which needs proper authentication
for the data collection. The Interface helps the administration with all the transactional
states like data insertion, data deletion, and data updating along with executive data
search capabilities.

The operational and generic user interface helps the users upon the system in
transactions through the existing data and required services. The operational user
interface also helps the ordinary users in managing their own information helps the
ordinary users in managing their own information in a customized manner as per the
assisted flexibilities.

NUMBER OF MODULES

The system after careful analysis has been identified to be presented with the following
modules:

The Modules involved are

1. Administration

2. Students

3. Staff

4. Modules Registration

5. Results Announcement

6. Search

7. Reports

8. Authentication

Business Goals

From the business perspective, the following are the goals of the system
 Student Records System Design

● Manage the complexity and longevity of upcoming student records storage

requirements

● Provide high quality of service in terms of uptime, reliability and backup.

● Allow the inclusion of financial information, so that it can be used as the basis of
full economic costing of courses and modules.

● Provide a speedy response to all queries

The Student Record System maintains records of students, the courses and modules
on which they are registered and the outcome of their studies.

The system maintains personal information for each student registered at the
university. The information consists of the student’s registration number, forename,
surname, gender, home address, term-time address, and date of birth. There are two
distinct categories of student within the University

● Undergraduate Students

● Postgraduate Students

For regulatory reasons all students must be categorized into one of these two
categories. For each undergraduate student the system must also maintain a record of
the name of the student’s Local Education Authority and an indication of whether they
have taken out a student loan. For each postgraduate student the system must maintain
a record of the name of their sponsor and a flag which indicates whether they are a
European or International Student.

Each student registers for a Program of Study. Every programme of study has a
name, a programme code and a credit tariff which is the number of credits a student
must attain in order to successfully complete the programme. The basic unit of credit
attainment is 20 credits and the credit tariff is always a multiple of 20.

A module is a separately taught and assessed element of a programme of study.

If a student studies and successfully completes a module they will be awarded 20 credits.
If a student studies but does not successfully completed a module they will be awarded
zero credit. Every module has a title and a module code.

A programme of study is made up of one or more distinct levels of study. An

undergraduate programme has three levels of study, one for each year of the course. A
postgraduate programme is taught within a single year and thus has only one level of
study. Each level of a course defines the set of core modules and optional modules
which can be studied in that year of study.

Every level has two sets of modules associated with it. The core modules are
those modules which every student taking the course of study. The optional modules are
a set of modules from which students may freely chose a certain number of modules that
they wish to study. This number of optional modules is referred to as the optional credit
tariff and is a fixed value of zero or more credits for each level of study.

Each student has a course registration record which defines their registration for a
particular programme of study. A student’s course registration record consists of an
 Student Records System Design

indicator of the student’s current level of study and a set of level registration records,
one for each level in the programme of study for which they have registered, i.e. Three
Levels of under Graduate Programme and One Level for a Post Graduate Programme.

A level registration record consists of a weighted average mark for the level of
study and a set of module registration records, one for each module that the student will
study or has studied in that level of the programme. Module registration records exist for
both core and optional modules and record the student’s attendance of that module, the
marks they gained in the examination, the marks they gained in the course work, an
overall mark for the module and a pass/fail indicator.

Administration

Administrator is a super user treated as a owner of this site. He can have all the
privileges. Administrator can register user directly, and delete the information of a
registered users.

Administrator can register students as well as faculties, after approving the

registration a student or a faculty having authority to log into the system. He can add
new courses based the Programme of study. Different modules are added by
administrator on different courses.

Students

User is nothing but a registered Student. A registered student directly sees his
personal information, registered modules, and marks details updated by faculties for
different modules.

Faculties

A module is taught by a faculty in the university. The major responsible of a

faculty is giving credits to students. Based on the modules faculties need to correct the
exam papers and giving results.

Registration

The system has a process of registration. Every user need to submit his complete
details in the form of registration. Whenever a user registration completed automatically
user can get a user id and password. By using that user id and password user can log
into the system.

Search

Different kind of search available to users as well as administrator. A user can

search is personal queries like student search their personal information, results,
modules they are registered, and credit information.
 Student Records System Design

INPUTS AND OUTPUTS

The major inputs and outputs and major functions of the system are follows:

Inputs:

● Admin enter his user id and password for login.

● User enters his user id and password for login.

● User Create new folder for personnel usage.

● Admin enter user id or date for track the user login information

● New user gives his completed personnel, address and phone details for
registration.

● Admin gives different kind of user information for search the user data.

● User gives his user id, hint question, answer for getting the forgotten password.

● User gives the folder permission for sharing the folder to other users.

Outputs:

● Admin can have his own home page.

● Users enter their own home page.

● The user defined folders can store in the centralized database.

● Admin will get the login information of a particular user.

● The new user’s data will be stored in the centralized database.

● Admin get the search details of different criteria.

● User can get his forgot password.

● The user folder having permission for private or public purpose.

SDLC METHDOLOGIES

This document play a vital role in the development of life cycle (SDLC) as it
describes the complete requirement of the system. It means for use by developers
and will be the basic during testing phase. Any changes made to the requirements in
the future will have to go through formal change approval process.

SPIRAL MODEL was defined by Barry Boehm in his 1988 article, “A spiral Model of
Software Development and Enhancement. This model was not the first model to
 Student Records System Design

discuss iterative development, but it was the first model to explain why the iteration
models.

As originally envisioned, the iterations were typically 6 months to 2 years long.

Each phase starts with a design goal and ends with a client reviewing the progress
thus far. Analysis and engineering efforts are applied at each phase of the project,
with an eye toward the end goal of the project.

The steps for Spiral Model can be generalized as follows:

● The new system requirements are defined in as much details as possible. This
usually involves interviewing a number of users representing all the external
or internal users and other aspects of the existing system.

● A preliminary design is created for the new system.

● A first prototype of the new system is constructed from the preliminary design.
This is usually a scaled-down system, and represents an approximation of the
characteristics of the final product.

● A second prototype is evolved by a fourfold procedure:

1. Evaluating the first prototype in terms of its strengths, weakness, and

risks.

2. Defining the requirements of the second prototype.

3. Planning an designing the second prototype.

4. Constructing and testing the second prototype.

● At the customer option, the entire project can be aborted if the risk is deemed
too great. Risk factors might involved development cost overruns, operating-
cost miscalculation, or any other factor that could, in the customer’s
judgment, result in a less-than-satisfactory final product.

● The existing prototype is evaluated in the same manner as was the previous
prototype, and if necessary, another prototype is developed from it according
to the fourfold procedure outlined above.

● The preceding steps are iterated until the customer is satisfied that the
refined prototype represents the final product desired.

● The final system is constructed, based on the refined prototype.

● The final system is thoroughly evaluated and tested. Routine maintenance is

carried on a continuing basis to prevent large scale failures and to minimize
down time.

The following diagram shows how a spiral model acts like:

 Student Records System Design

Fig 1.0-Spiral Model

ADVANTAGES:

● Estimates(i.e. budget, schedule etc .) become more relistic as work

progresses, because important issues discoved earlier.

● It is more able to cope with the changes that are software development
generally entails.

● Software engineers can get their hands in and start woring on the core
of a project earlier.
 Student Records System Design

INPUT DESIGN

Input design is a part of overall system design. The main objective during the input
design as given below:

● To produce cost-effective method of input

● To achieve the highest possible level of accuracy.

● To ensure that the input is acceptable and understood by the user.

Input States:

The main input stages can be listed as below:

● Data recording

● Data transcription

● Data conversion

● Data verification

● Data control

● Data transmission

● Data validation

● Data correction

Input Types:

It is necessary to determine the various types of input. Inputs can be categorized as

follows:

● External Inputs which are prime inputs for the system.

● Internal Inputs, which are user communications with the systems.

● Operational, which are computer department’s communications to the

system?

● Interactive, which are inputs entered during a dialogue.

Input Media:

At this stage choice has to be made about the input media. To conclude about the input
media consideration has to be given to:

● Type of Input

● Flexibility of Format

● Speed

● Accuracy

● Verification methods
 Student Records System Design

● Rejection rates

● Ease of correction

● Storage and handling requirements

● Security

● Easy to use

● Portability

Keeping in view the above description of the input types and input media, it can be said
that most of the inputs are of the form of internal and interactive. As input data is to be
directly keyed in by the user, the keyboard can be considered to be the most suitable
input device.

OUTPUT DESIGN:

Outputs from computer systems are required primarily to communicate the results of
processing to users. They are also used to provide a permanent copy of the results for
later consultation. The various types of outputs in general are:

● External Outputs, whose destination is outside the organization,.

● Internal Outputs whose destination is within organization and they are the
▪ User’s main interface with the computer.
● Operational outputs whose use is purely within the computer department.
● Interface outputs, which involve the user in communicating directly with User
Interface.

Output Definition:
The outputs should be defined in terms of the following points:
● Type of the output
● Content of the output
● Format of the output
● Location of the output
● Frequency of the output
● Volume of the output
● Sequence of the output

It is not always desirable to print or display data as it is held on a computer. It should be

decided as which form of the output is the most suitable.
 Student Records System Design

For Example

● Will decimal points need to be inserted

● Should leading zeros be suppressed.

Output Media:
In the next stage it is to be decided that which medium is the most appropriate for the
output. The main considerations when deciding about the output media are:

● The suitability for the device to the particular application.

● The need for a hard copy.
● The response time required.
● The location of the users
● The software and hardware available.

Keeping in view the above description the project is to have outputs mainly
coming under the category of internal outputs. The main outputs desired according to
the requirement specification are: The outputs were needed to be generated as a hot
copy and as well as queries to be viewed on the screen. Keeping in view these outputs,
the format for the output is taken from the outputs, which are currently being obtained
after manual processing. The standard printer is to be used as output media for hard
copies.

CONTEXT LEVEL DIAGRAM

 Student Records System Design

APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT:

N-Tier Applications:

N-Tier Applications can easily implement the concepts of Distributed Application Design
and Architecture. The N-Tier Applications provide strategic benefits to Enterprise
Solutions. While 2-tier, client-server can help us create quick and easy solutions and may
 Student Records System Design

be used for Rapid Prototyping, they can easily become a maintenance and security night
mare

The N-tier Applications provide specific advantages that are vital to the business
continuity of the enterprise. Typical features of a real life n-tier may include the
following:

● Security

● Availability and Scalability

● Manageability

● Easy Maintenance

● Data Abstraction

The above mentioned points are some of the key design goals of a successful n-tier
application that intends to provide a good Business Solution.

Definition:

Simply stated, an n-tier application helps us distribute the overall functionality into
various tiers or layers:

● Presentation Layer

● Business Rules Layer

● Data Access Layer

● Database/Data Store

Each layer can be developed independently of the other provided that it adheres to the
standards and communicates with the other layers as per the specifications.

This is the one of the biggest advantages of the n-tier application. Each layer can
potentially treat the other layer as a ‘Block-Box’.

In other words, each layer does not care how other layer processes the data as long as it
sends the right data in a correct format.
 Student Records System Design

Fig 1.1-N-Tier Architecture

1. The Presentation Layer:

Also called as the client layer comprises of components that are dedicated to
presenting the data to the user. For example: Windows/Web Forms and buttons,
edit boxes, Text boxes, labels, grids, etc.

2. The Business Rules Layer:

This layer encapsulates the Business rules or the business logic of the
encapsulations. To have a separate layer for business logic is of a great
advantage. This is because any changes in Business Rules can be easily handled
in this layer. As long as the interface between the layers remains the same, any
changes to the functionality/processing logic in this layer can be made without
impacting the others. A lot of client-server apps failed to implement successfully
as changing the business logic was a painful process.

3. The Data Access Layer:

This layer comprises of components that help in accessing the Database. If used
in the right way, this layer provides a level of abstraction for the database
structures. Simply put changes made to the database, tables, etc do not affect
the rest of the application because of the Data Access layer. The different
application layers send the data requests to this layer and receive the response
from this layer.

4. The Database Layer:

This layer comprises of the Database Components such as DB Files, Tables, Views,
etc. The Actual database could be created using SQL Server, Oracle, Flat files, etc.

In an n-tier application, the entire application can be implemented in such a way

that it is independent of the actual Database. For instance, you could change the
Database Location with minimal changes to Data Access Layer. The rest of the
Application should remain unaffected
 Student Records System Design

PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS:

Performance is measured in terms of the output provided by the application.

Requirement specification plays an important part in the analysis of a system. Only when
the requirement specifications are properly given, it is possible to design a system, which
will fit into required environment. It rests largely in the part of the users of the existing
system to give the requirement specifications because they are the people who finally
use the system. This is because the requirements have to be known during the initial
stages so that the system can be designed according to those requirements. It is very
difficult to change the system once it has been designed and on the other hand
designing a system, which does not cater to the requirements of the user, is of no use.

The requirement specification for any system can be broadly stated as given
below:

● The system should be able to interface with the existing system

● The system should be accurate
● The system should be better than the existing system
The existing system is completely dependent on the user to perform all the duties.

FEASIBILITY REPORT:

Preliminary investigation examine project feasibility, the likelihood the system will
be useful to the organization. The main objective of the feasibility study is to test the
Technical, Operational and Economical feasibility for adding new modules and debugging
old running system. All system is feasible if they are unlimited resources and infinite
time. There are aspects in the feasibility study portion of the preliminary investigation:

● Technical Feasibility
● Operation Feasibility
● Economical Feasibility

Technical Feasibility

The technical issue usually raised during the feasibility stage of the investigation includes
the following:

● Does the necessary technology exist to do what is suggested?

● Do the proposed equipments have the technical capacity to hold the data
required to use the new system?
● Will the proposed system provide adequate response to inquiries, regardless of
the number or location of users?
● Can the system be upgraded if developed?
 Student Records System Design

● Are there technical guarantees of accuracy, reliability, ease of access and data
security?
Earlier no system existed to cater to the needs of ‘Secure Infrastructure Implementation
System’. The current system developed is technically feasible. It is a web based user
interface for audit workflow at NIC-CSD. Thus it provides an easy access to the users. The
database’s purpose is to create, establish and maintain a workflow among various
entities in order to facilitate all concerned users in their various capacities or roles.
Permission to the users would be granted based on the roles specified. Therefore, it
provides the technical guarantee of accuracy, reliability and security. The software and
hard requirements for the development of this project are not many and are already
available in-house at NIC or are available as free as open source. The work for the project
is done with the current equipment and existing software technology. Necessary
bandwidth exists for providing a fast feedback to the users irrespective of the number of
users using the system.

Operational Feasibility

Proposed projects are beneficial only if they can be turned out into information system.
That will meet the organization’s operating requirements. Operational feasibility aspects
of the project are to be taken as an important part of the project implementation. Some
of the important issues raised are to test the operational feasibility of a project includes
the following: -

● Is there sufficient support for the management from the users?

● Will the system be used and work properly if it is being developed and
implemented?
● Will there be any resistance from the user that will undermine the possible
application benefits?
This system is targeted to be in accordance with the above-mentioned issues.
Beforehand, the management issues and user requirements have been taken into
consideration. So there is no question of resistance from the users that can undermine
the possible application benefits.

The well-planned design would ensure the optimal utilization of the computer resources
and would help in the improvement of performance status.

Economic Feasibility

A system can be developed technically and that will be used if installed must still be a
good investment for the organization. In the economical feasibility, the development cost
in creating the system is evaluated against the ultimate benefit derived from the new
 Student Records System Design

systems. Financial benefits must equal or exceed the costs. The system is economically
feasible. It does not require any addition hardware or software. Since the interface for
this system is developed using the existing resources and technologies available at NIC,
There is nominal expenditure and economical feasibility for certain.