Borana university

College of engineering and technology

Department of
Computer science

final project proposal

title:
online dormitory management system for BRU

PREPARED BY:-
1.Reta shibeshi
2.Surafel Emiru
3.Abduba Boru
4.Bamlak Abebayu

ADVISOR: GUYITA G (MA)

Yabello,Ethiopia
 Table of content

CHAPTER ONE
Introduction............................................................................................................ 1
1.1 Organizational background...........................................................................2
1.2 Statement Of The Problem And Justification...............................................2
1.3 Objective of the project................................................................................3
1.3.1 General Objectives...............................................................................3
1.3.2 Specific Objectives.............................................................................3
1.4 Methodology.................................................................................................3
1.4.1 Data Collection Methods......................................................................3
1.4.2 System Development Models...............................................................4
1.5 Development Tools.......................................................................................5
1.6 Scope and limitations of the project.............................................................5
1.6.1 Scope of the project.............................................................................5
1.6.2 Limitations of the project....................................................................6
1.7 Significance of the project...........................................................................6
1.8 Feasibility Study of the new System............................................................6
1.8.1 Operational Feasibility.........................................................................7
1.8.2 Technical Feasibility............................................................................7
1.8.3 Economic Feasibility............................................................................7
1.8.4 Political feasibility...............................................................................8
1.9 Risk Assessment...........................................................................................8
1.10 work break-down........................................................................................9

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 CHAPTER ONE

Introduction
Technology is spreading its wing in almost every walks of human life activities. Now a
day it is better if every activity is done using new technology in order to fulfill the need of
human being, Organization, Enterprise etc. As today’s world there are many organizations and
each organizations needs to be preferable, computable and work on fastest way in order to satisfy
users interest etc. i.e. they should have facilitate their activities in computerized way.

Many developing countries are in a good position to exploit the opportunity of

technology revolution and advance human development. The information and communication
technology provide new resource materials for expanding communication.

In fact the second half of 20th century has wittiness the global phenomena of an
information explosion. The development in communication technology has made it possible for
millions of people to have fast access to vast information presented in several forms. Today
computer and other electronic device increasingly communicate and interact directly with other
devices over a variety of network such as internet. The internet provides individuals and small
business centers for the ability to communicate inexpensively.

Hence, developing the system using technology has a tremendous effect for organizations
and offices; which is in our case the Borana University Online dormitory management system
(BRUODMS). Currently, the system is manual based; due to this the students and proctors faces
some problems. Because of this, we are initiating to develop our project on dormitory system in
order to minimize the problem by using computerized system.

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 1.1 Organizational background

BORANA UNIVERSITY (BRU) is one of the new Universities which was established in the
year 2009 E.C by the Ethiopian government (MOE). BRU is located in the southern part of
Ethiopia, in Oromia regional state, Borana Zone, in Yabello town. which is 575 kms far from
Addis Ababa to the South. The foundation of the University was laid down in May 2009 E.C.

BRU started the teaching, learning Process on may 26, 2013 E.C in the faculty of education with
two streams, namely social and natural science. Currently the University runs over 22
departments in first degree. In addition to the academic service the university provides dining,
health care, dormitory, community service and other services for the students and Yabello town
communities.
In the University there are different management activities were performed. Among those the
main service which provides the university to the student is Students’ Dormitory Management
can be taken as an example. In this process there is a problem associated with the Dormitory
Management. So we the project team members were initiated for this project to identify and
analyze those problems and to put possible solutions.

1.2 Statement Of The Problem And Justification

Currently, BRU dormitory management system uses manual approach. To process the operation
first the ministry of education sends all the information to the registrar bureau and gives to the
student affairs (dormitory) and to the dinning office. After taking the list, they assigned students
to each block and room. At that time they face different problems during operating their tasks.
Working by paper based i.e. manual system is not only affecting the management members,
rather it also for student during viewing of their dormitory information. Some of those problems
are:-
 Data duplication and Time consuming.
 Require more human power to assign the students.
 Management inflexibility

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 1.3 Objective of the project
1.3.1 General Objectives

The main objective of this project is to develop a new Web Based Dormitory Management
System which solves the above mentioned problems with the existing system. This is achieved
by designing a web based application program that will change the actual manual processing into
a computerized environment.

1.3.2 Specific Objectives

In order to achieve the main objective, we have the following specific objectives:
 Developing user friendly interface.
 To keep the overall records associated with the dormitory and student information in a
permanent database.
 To minimize the work load of the employees (proctors).
 To assign the dorm to the students without any fault.

1.4 Methodology
1.4.1 Data Collection Methods

The data collection instruments used to gather accurate information about the existing system
and the requirements for the new system. Interviews and questionnaires were administered to
Stakeholders like Students, Proctors and Dormitory management officer to collect user
requirements. Observation of the current existing system was done at the Dormitory management
office in order to find out how the existing system functions, the problems encountered and how
they can be solved by the new computerized system.
To get a precise data, the team member has used the following data collection techniques.
Those are: -
A. Interview: - to get the basic information and background information about the existing
management system, the team members has interviewed the proctors and some students
about the services that are given to them, and the problems associated with that
environment.

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 B. Direct observation: even though interview is very important to gather information,
direct observation is simple and we project team members physically observe information
that cannot maintain from the interview or others and also it is important if they are
unable to communicate with others because of the difficulties they have to the language.
C. Questionnaires: since proctors as well as higher officials of proctors have work load
they cannot able to answer/give information what we ask. So we prepare some sample
questions to get précised information.
D. Existing document: To get more information about the project we use earlier documents
that help us to develop the project. During the analysis of documents, we give a special
consideration to those documents which can bring more features to the project.

1.4.2 System Development Models

Here for the analysis of our project we have selected object oriented system analysis and design
method specifically UML (Unified Modeling Language) model. We have selected this because
of the following advantages:-
 To simplify the design and implementation of complex program.
 To make it easier for teams of designers and programmers to work in a single software
project.
 To enable a high degree of reusability of designs and of software codes.
 To decrease the cost of software maintenance.
 Increase reusability.
 Reduce maintenance burden.
 Increased consistency among analysis, design and programming activities.
 Improved communication among users, analysis, design and programming.

1.5 Development Tools

While developing the project starts from the documentation to the implementation we use the
following case tools:

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 Activities Tools
Documentation MS word 2007,2010,WPS Office
Design Microsoft Visio 2007,Visual paradigm for
UML standard design
Editing Paint, Macro media flash 8

Script languages PHP, JavaScript, CSS, HTML

Web server Apache Xamp server
Data base Server Mysql database

Table 1.1 development tools

1.6 Scope and limitations of the project

1.6.1 Scope of the project

Since BRU dormitory management performs its basic tasks manually the scope of this project is
to develop and implement a new web based Dormitory Management system which will avoid the
problems associated with the manual processing.
The proposed system includes:-
 Assign the dorm accordingly
 Enable students view their dormitory information easily and quickly
 Generate report.
 Manage dormitory related information.

1.6.2 Limitations of the project

 It’s difficult to know students information and give clearance while they are living the
campus.
 Failure of electric power and network connection

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 1.7 Significance of the project
The new online dormitory management and allocation system is highly reliable, easy, fast and
consistent and will play a crucial role for reliable service for students, proctors, and for the
management. The significance of the system includes:
 To minimize time and efforts needed to perform tasks.
 To make tasks simple and efficient in every aspects.
 To manage the students and building information.
 Providing a well-organized and guaranteed record keeping system with minimum space and
effort need.
 To enable the university to get acceptance in the outside community.
 Developing students’ effective communication with the university.

1.8 Feasibility Study of the new System

Feasibility study is essential to evaluate the cost and benefits of the new system. On the basis of
the feasibility study decision is taken on whether to proceed or to cancel the project.
Need of the feasibility study:
 It determines the potential of the existing system.
 It used to determine/finds out the problem of the existing system.
 To determine all goals of the new system.
 It finds all possible solutions of the problems of the existing system.

1.8.1 Operational Feasibility

The system to be developed will provide accurate, active, secured service and decreases labor of
workers and also it is not limited to particular groups or body. And also it is plat form
independent i.e. it run’s in all operating system.

1.8.2 Technical Feasibility

The system to be developed by using technologically system development techniques such as

PHP, Javascript, css and Mysql database without any problems and the group members have
enough capability to develop the project. So the system will be technically feasible.

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 1.8.3 Economic Feasibility

The system to be developed is economically feasible and the benefit is outweighing the cost.
Since this project already computerizes the existing system, by now the reduction of cost for
materials used in manual operation becomes beneficiary to the organization.
Generally the system that we developed, BRUODMS brought a number of tangible and
intangible benefits.
Tangible benefits:
1. Cost Reduction
2. Error Reduction
3. Increase Speed of activity
Intangible benefits:
1. Reduce Resource Consumption
2. Increase security
3. Increase Management flexibility

1.8.4 Political feasibility

The system to be developed is not conflict with any government directives, because it gives
services for the people effectively and efficiently. So the government is profitable and the system
will be politically feasible.

1.9 Risk Assessment

During the development of the project there may be different problems that we may face. These
are:
 Time management problem: but we solve this problem by working cooperatively, divide
our time by schedule for each phase of the project and we try to use this schedule effectively
 The employees (proctors) of the student residence may not be voluntary to give detail
information about their operations. To solve this problem we try to ask any thing politely
and tell reason why we ask them.
 Failure of electric power and internet connectivity- we try to solve this by taking back up to
external storage devices.

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 1.10 work break-down
Time

Jan 02- feb 7

Mar 20-
Activities

June 21-
June 22
Mar 17

Apr 20

Apr 21-
Feb 07-

Feb 25-

May 01
Feb 20
Project Proposal

Requirement Analysis
Design
Implementation & Coding

Testing
project Defense

Table 1.2 work break down

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 CHAPTER TWO

Requirement Analysis and Specification

2.1 Current system

2.1.1 Description of current system

The current system of BRU dormitory management system is manual (partial). In order to
arrange and allocate students to dorms, they have to follow the record as it is arranged by BRU
Registrar office and allocate Students depending on department and the lists of the students’
arrangement. After getting the list from the registrar office, the proctor allocates the students to
each block and dorm. Since there are so many students, the allocation method causes problems
like assigning female students to males’ dorm and vice versa and also assigning students more
than the capacity of the dorm. In addition to these problems, during assignation there is no
consideration of disable students.

2.1.2 Major functions of current system

Even if the existing system is performs its activities manually (partial), it has different major
functions.
 Arranging buildings for the allocation: here the total number of building is determined
with its holding capacity
 Arranging students for allocation: here total number of students and their academic
information such as department, sex, faculty, and class year is received from registrar.
Students are then arranged based on their sex, class year, and their department and faculty
for dormitory allocation.
 Dormitory allocation: based on the arrangement of students dorms are allocated for
students along with associated dormitory resources, like lockers, tables, chairs, beds and the
like.
 Generating allocation report: based the dormitory allocation the allocation report is
prepared and posted for student when they arrive at the campus after annual break.

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 Managing and controlling dormitory materials: at the beginning and end of each year,
dormitory materials are recorded and controlled whether they are functioning properly or
not, then appropriate measure is taken.
 Controlling student’s discipline: In addition to the above functionalities student’s
discipline measures are controlled and recorded, whether they use the dormitory materials
properly or not, and whether they act and perform things as per the dormitory rules and
regulations.

2.1.3 Player of the current system

An existing system compromises different players to carry out its job. Among those
different actors (players), the most common are Proctor manager, this body provides the list of
all students who fulfilled every requirement for allocation to proctors, Students, they will be
placed in their dorm by proctors and assigned for the property they get from the proctor,
Proctors, They involved strongly in the existing system. Proctors collect students list from
registrar. After they get all these information’s from this body they will place those students
according to their sex, class year, department and faculty.
The major actors in the existing system are:
 Students
 Proctors and
 Proctor manager

2.1.4 Work flows in the current system

To overcome or improve this manual (partial) operation the team comes up with a new
Dormitory Management System entitled BRUODMS. This new system is a Web based
application that enables the users to access the services given by the system through the Internet.
The proposed system operates in the following manner. Normally the student information
is taken from the registrar bureau. The registrar bureau have centralized database. Then the
student dormitory officers can access that database. After getting all the required information the
system will feed into our back end database based on their year (batch), department, faculty and
sex. After doing this the system will generate the allocation report which contains dormitory
information like student’s name, id number, dorm number, and block number. This report will be
released online for the student so that they can access this information by entering his/her

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identification number or registration number on the webpage provided by the system just by
sitting where ever they are.

2.1.5 Report generating in the current system

In an existing system there are different reports generated for different purposes. Those
reports include Student Dormitory allocation report, Student status report; Resource received
report, and clearance report in addition to conditional report such as discipline case report,
damaged resource report, and etc.
The dormitory allocation report contains the report related to student’s block number and
dorm number. Resource received report includes reports of materials that a student has taken
from a Proctor when he/she first assigned in to that dorm. The student status report is any report
that contains any up-to-date information about a student. Discipline measurement report
embraces reports such as does a student contains any discipline record in this campus and what
type of discipline measure were taken will be generated in the report. Clearance report is a report
which is generated when any student wants to leave a campus because of different reasons.
When he/she leave a campus the above reports will be checked by the proctor collectively.
Those all reports were checked to clarify a student whether he/she returned all resources
that he/she used, is he/she free of discipline measures? After checking those reports a proctor
will clear the student that ensures that the student is free of any resources while he/she was in
dorm.

2.2 Business Rules

A business rule is effectively an operating principle or polices that must be fulfilled and
obligated in order the system will function properly and effectively. It often pertain to access
control issues, business calculations, or operating polices and principles of the organization
(Ambler, 2001).
BR1: Only one dorm is assigned for four students, and those students should live in the dorm
which belongs to him/her.
BR2: Students should not change their dorm without the permission of the proctor with
sufficient reason.
BR3: Students are allocated in such a way that male students are not allocated with female
students.

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BR4: Proctors should not assign one student in more than one dorm.
BR5: Proctors should not use student’s personal information for other purposes.
BR6: Buildings should be arranged before the allocation.
BR7: After the allocation reports should be prepared by proctors for students’ i.e. for posting.

2.3 Problems in the current system

The manual (partial) dormitory management system is disposed to various problems.
These problems can be seen from the following perspectives like performance, information,
economic, control, efficiency and services given by the existing system to the users.

 The performance of any system is required to show to meet the needs of users of that
system. The current system’s performance is weak. This is due to the following reasons: -
first the acceptable quantity rate is relatively high i.e. the time required from initiation to
completion of a particular task is relatively high. For example during arrangement of
buildings for the allocation it may take a week or more due to its manual operation. Second is
the acceptable response time for a particular task is large.

 Information- the main input for the current system is student record and records of different
dormitory materials which enable the system to rearrange students and buildings for the
allocation. Based on this the system rearranges and allocates dorms for students at the
beginning each academic year and generates the allocation report which may be viewed by
the students as well as the management. The other data that is stored is record of materials
associated with the dormitory. The system manipulates and manages all of these and other
records manually on papers.

 Controlling- since all the records associated with the manual system are recorded and
stored manually the security that the system provide for the privacy of this records is not
good. The system shouldn’t provide sufficient protection for access and manipulation of the
records associated with the system.

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 Services- the main users of the current system are students and the management itself. The
services given to users are not flexible, reliable and expandable i.e. the users must there in
the campus to get the services given by the system. Those services given by the system are
limited to a particular area.

2.4 Practices to be preserved from current system

Even if the existing system is manual system as it has weakness it also has some strong side that
we need to be preserved are:
 Provide the required infrastructure to the students.
 Protecting dormitory resources.
 Posting dormitory information in each building.
 Generation timely report.
 Assessing discipline cases.

2.5 Alternative solutions

In order to overcome the current system problems that exist in the functioning of BRUDMS, our
project team members have put down alternative options. These are:
 Change manual system in to computerized system (online) without affecting the structure
of the existing system.
 Fetching records from excel sheet (.CSV)

2.6 The proposed system

2.6.1. Functional requirement
The following are the functional requirements of the new system.
 The system accepts (read) the uploaded record.
 The system should arrange the buildings for the allocation.
 The system should arrange students for the allocation.
 The system should assign dorms for students.
 The system should generate timely report about the allocation.
 The system should store all the data related with all the tasks performed into a
database.

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 2.6.2 Non-functional requirement
i. User Interface
This works as an interface between the user and the system by properly guiding the user how
to use it and perform operations. Proctors can change the data in the BRUODMS based on their
privilege, whereas, students can only view their dorm information and they can give comment.
Any sort of training is not required for using the system. It is important that the system is easy to
learn. The input device is given to keyboard and the output is viewed on the monitor.
ii. Quality Issue
Information in database should be as much as possible correct and updated in each semester.
iii. Security Issue
This system provides an access to an authorized user by giving account for each and every
special function. Students can view their dorm information by using their identification card
number and/or registration number, and give comment without any validation.
iv. Error Handling
Our system handles the errors in a very efficient manner. It can tolerate to wrong inputs and
prompts the users to correct the inputs. It gives notifications as and when required, guiding the
users to properly utilize it.
v. Performance characteristic
Performance requirements are concerned with quantifiable attributes of the system such as
System should quickly respond for user request that is system must immediately display the
needed service along with their allocation details after he/she insert needed information to view.

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