A Full System Overview

FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT AND COMPUTING

4/16/2013

A FULL SYSTEM OVERVIEW SYSTEMS ANALYSIS & DESIGN (CPT223) BACHELOR OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Asadhu Shujaau

(33475)

Ibrahim Areef

(36934)

Fathih Mamdhooh

(36884)

Hammaadh Rasheedh

(37404)

A Full System Overview

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Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 2 Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) .......................................................................................... 3 Data Dictionaries ........................................................................................................................ 4 Data Flow ................................................................................................................................ 5 Data Store .............................................................................................................................. 10 Data Structure – Process 8 (Produce Leave Documents)...................................................... 13 Opportunities & Problems ........................................................................................................ 14 Problems ................................................................................................................................ 14 Opportunities ......................................................................................................................... 14 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 15 References ................................................................................................................................ 16

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Introduction The main objective of this report is to provide a full system overview of the HumanResource Management System (HRMS) used in Maldives Police Service. We have included an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD), a data dictionary entry for a data flow, data store, and a data structure based on a process in the Data Flow Diagram of the HRMS. In addition, the report will contain major problems and opportunities that exist in the present Human-Resource Management System. Report ends with a brief conclusion.

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Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) It is a data modeling method that builds a graphical representation of the entities, and the relationships between them. (Rouse, 2007) There are different methods used for drawing an entity-relationship diagram. In this report, we will be using the crow’s foot notations to draw the E-R Diagram. Figure 1 below shows the ERD for the Maldives Police Service with only the few important entities and attributes. Figure 1: Entity-Relationship Diagram

The entity “Operation” shows the tasks that are given to different employees which needs to be completed in a certain period. Operations are given to individuals as well as groups. An example can be a case an individual or a group is involved in. As an operation can be given to many employees and as employees can take part in many operations, a weak entity is created to represent this relationship. The same has been done with the “Department” and “Branch”. P a g e 3 | 16

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Data Dictionaries Data dictionaries can be useful for different ways. Other than providing documentation and eliminating redundancy, they may be used to: 

Check the DFD for completeness and accuracy.



Provide a starting point for creating forms, screens and reports.



Regulate the contents of data stored in data stores.



Create the logic for data flow diagram processes.



Create XML (extensible markup language). (Kendall & Kendall, 2010)

To create a data dictionary for data flow and data store. We chose the “Processed Leave” as the data flow and “Employee Record” as the data store. The dataflow and data store description forms and data structures are provided on the coming pages with the Element Description Forms.

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Data Flow DATA FLOW DESCRIPTION FORM ID: Name:

Processed Leave

Description: Contains leave requests of employees, is used to update and verify the information from Employee Records as they take leave and to create leave list and the leave summary.

Source:

Destination:

Processed Leave Records

Process 8 ( Produce Leave Documents )

Type of data flow: File ( )

Screen (X)

Report ( )

Form ( )

Internal ( )

Data Structure Traveling with the flow:

Volume/Time:

Information about taking leave.

7/Day

Comments: Contains information on taking leave related to one employee. Data are submitted by employees by filling a form on screen and it is retrieved later from Processed Leave Records.

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Processed Leave =

Service Number + Employee Name + Address + (Email) + Designation + Date of Leave + Type of Leave + Days on leave + Reason

Employee Name =

First Name + ( Middle Name ) + Last Name

Address =

Street + ( Residence ) + Island +

Type of Leave =

[ Sick Leave | Family Responsibility | Annual Leave ]

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ELEMENT DESCRIPTION FORM ID: Name: Service Number Alias: Employee ID Description: Uniquely identifies each employee who are working in Maldives Police Service. Element Characteristics Length:

( ) Alphabetic

Input Format:

( ) Alphanumeric

Output Format:

( ) Date

Default Value:

( ) Numeric

(X) Continuous or ( ) Discrete

( ) Base or ( ) Derived Validation Criteria

Continuous

Discrete

Upper Limit:

Value

Meaning

Lower Limit: Comments: Should be unique to each employee. It is a continuous number. Always the next number is given when a new employee joins.

ELEMENT DESCRIPTION FORM FIELD

LENGTH

% OF DATA THAT FITS

First Name

10

98

Middle Name

10

98

Last Name

10

98

Street

18

95

Residence

15

97

Island

15

99

Email

25

99

Designation

15

100

Reason

200

90

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ELEMENT DESCRIPTION FORM ID: Name: Date of Leave Alias: Leave start day Description: Shows the start date of employee’s leave. Element Characteristics Length: 8

( ) Alphabetic

Input Format: DDMMYYYY

( ) Alphanumeric

Output Format: DDMMYYYY

(X) Date

Default Value:

( ) Numeric

( ) Continuous or (X) Discrete

( ) Base or ( ) Derived Validation Criteria

Continuous

Discrete

Upper Limit:

Value

Meaning

Lower Limit:

29052013

Start date of leave is 29th may 2013

Comments: Should be in date format day month then year.

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ELEMENT DESCRIPTION FORM ID: Name: Days on Leave Alias: Duration of Leave Description: shows the length of the leave in days. Element Characteristics Length: 2

( ) Alphabetic

Input Format: 9(2)

( ) Alphanumeric

Output Format: 9(2)

( ) Date

Default Value:

(X) Numeric

( ) Continuous or (X) Discrete

( ) Base or ( ) Derived Validation Criteria

Continuous

Discrete

Upper Limit:

Value

Meaning

Lower Limit:

02

Can be for a sick leave mostly

13

More than two days can mean family responsibility or annual leave

Comments:

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Data Store

DATA STORE DESCRIPTION FORM ID: Name:

Employee Records

Alias:

Employee Master

Description: Contains a separate record for each employee. DATA STORE CHARACTERISTICS File Type:

(X) Computer

File Format: ( ) Direct

( ) Manual ( ) Indexed

(X) Database

Record Size (Characters):

Block Size:

Number of Records (Maximum) :

Average:

( ) Sequential

% Growth Per Year: Data Set Name: Employee.REC Copy Member: EmpMaster Data Structure: Employee Record Primary Key: Service Number Secondary Keys: National ID Employee Name InsuranceSerialNum Comments: Contains Personal and working details of employees, it have different uses like maintain employee information, it is used while calculating pays and giving leaves.

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Employee Record =

Service Number + Employee Name + National ID + Address + (Email) + Department Number + Insurance Serial Number + Contact Number

Employee Name =

First Name + ( Middle Name ) + Last Name

Address =

Street + ( Residence ) + Island +

ELEMENT DESCRIPTION FORM ID: Name: National ID Description: Proves the nationality of the employees. Element Characteristics Length: 7

( ) Alphabetic

Input Format: A9(6)

(X) Alphanumeric

Output Format: A9(6)

( ) Date

Default Value:

( ) Numeric

( ) Continuous or (X) Discrete

(X) Base or ( ) Derived Validation Criteria

Continuous

Discrete

Upper Limit:

Value

Meaning

Lower Limit:

A322602

National ID of an employee

A334456

National ID of another employee

Comments: National ID must be present.

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ELEMENT DESCRIPTION FORM ID: Name: Contact Number Alias: Mobile Number Description: Employee’s personal contact number. Element Characteristics Length: 7

( ) Alphabetic

Input Format: 9(7)

( ) Alphanumeric

Output Format: 9(7)

( ) Date

Default Value:

(X) Numeric

( ) Continuous or (X) Discrete

(X) Base or ( ) Derived Validation Criteria

Continuous

Discrete

Upper Limit:

Value

Meaning

Lower Limit:

7555463

Contact Number of an employee

Comments: should start with a “9” or a “7”.

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Data Structure – Process 8 (Produce Leave Documents)

DATA FLOW

DATA STRUCTURE Processed Leave =

Service Number + Employee Name + Address + (Email) + Designation + Date of Leave + Type of Leave + Days on leave + Reason

Employees Record =

Service Number + Employee Name + Address + (Email)

Leave Summary =

Employee Name + Possible date + Start date + End date

Leave List =

Service Number + Employee Name + Address + (Email) + Designation + Type of Leave + Days on leave + Reason Service Number + Employee Name + Address + (Email) + Designation + Type of Leave + Days on leave + Reason

Verified Leave

Employee Personal Info =

Service Number + Employee Name + Address + (Email)

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Opportunities & Problems The following are the major problems and opportunities that we found to be present in the current Human-Resource Management System used in Maldives Police Service.

Problems 

They are using two separate information systems to handle documents. Apart from the HRMS they use the E-Government System for document handling. Using both means sometimes same documents can be processed in both systems, which in hand might create duplicates and may lead to wastage of space and confusions.



Some employees find it difficult to use the system. So to solve this they do carry out few training lessons.

Opportunities 

Some Information systems can be merged together to handle the work better. Like E-Government System and their HRMS. Though this will possibly be expensive, the benefits like work simplification less wastage of space, less confusion are greater.



Using some system on internet rather than on intranet can help reduce time wastage and make work faster. However doing this can increase the chances of coming under a cyber-attack, but with a good security system this can be overcome up to a level. Putting a system online brings benefits as well. In the case of Maldives Police Service, as it operates in many areas of the Maldives, collection of data related to administrative and HR works can be simplified.

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Conclusion Knowing the methodology of creating a data dictionaries and Entity-Relationship Diagram can support the systems analyst in understanding the system and how it works. As they provide detailed information about the data stores and the data flows. Data dictionaries can simplify the work for programmers as well. They will know what type of data is to be used with the help of data dictionaries hence helping to make the work easy. So in-order to get a better accurate system, data dictionaries play an important role just as the ERD.

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References Kendall, J. E., & Kendall, K. E. (2010). Systems Analysis and Design. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Rouse, M. (2007, March). entity-relationship diagram (ERD or ER diagram). Retrieved from http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/definition/entity-relationship-diagram

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