FACULTY OF COMMERCE

DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS

MODULE CODE: INFO 205

LEVEL 2:2

WATER RATIONING SYSTEM

CONVENTIONAL
NAME SURNAME REG NUMBER
TINASHE F MADHURO R1914695M
TREVOR RUNESU R1916131Y
KUNDAIMIIDZO MAPOSA R1912953W
ADRIAN T MOYO R1910701F
TALENT MUSARIRI R198306H

CHAPTER TWO: PLANNING

2.1 Introduction
This phase places of interest preliminary analysis of the application which is the planning phase.
Its main aim was to convey the overall synopsis of the water rationing system to be executed by
the Bulawayo City Council. This stage addresses the business value, feasibility study that is
technical, economic, social and operational feasibility. The study will be conducted in order to
evaluate whether or not it is worthwhile to proceed with the system.

2.2 Feasibility Study

O’Brien and Marakas (2011) defined feasibility as the degree of how favourable or useful the
development of the projected software anticipated to be to the organisation. Hence feasibility
study attends and focuses on examining if the project undergo is viable with specified seeming
resources plus interval restraints. The project was well-thought-out of as viable when the
expected benefits were ought to be greater than the estimated costs. Brown (2012) says
feasibility is precisely described as the actual extent a project could be executed effectively. In
assessing viability of a project, there is need to undertake a feasibility study. This study defines
whether the resolution well thought-out for the requirements to be get done are definite and
doable in the system. Included in the feasibility study is information on accessibility of
resources, estimated cost for system development, organisational benefits of the system and also
maintenance cost to be accrued. Feasibility study is mainly focused on establishing reasons why
the application is being developed and they should be satisfactory to the operators of the system,
flexible to alteration and conform to recognized principles. Below are other several aims of
feasibility study.

 To examine if the application shall link with the requirements of the organization
 Defining whether this system could be employed by means of the contemporary
technology, inside the indicated financial plan and program
  Determination of whether the application may be incorporated by former prevailing
software. 

Feasibility study delved into issues which include technical viability, economic viability,
operational viability as well as societal viability of the project.

2.3.1 Technical feasibility

Technical feasibility assesses resources availability including hardware and software and also
necessary technologies, that are obligatory and compulsory in the accomplishment of what is
required by the users in the application using the apportioned budget and time, (Brown 2012).
More so, the system developers are the ones who decide whether the current possessions or
technologies be upgraded before included in the system development to achieve stipulated user
desires. This study endorses on the below stated statements.

 Considers if the system developers have technical knowhow and competences

 Defines if pertinent technology has unchanging state coupled with recognition
 It finds out if technology selected in developing the software consumes a sizable total of
clients with the intention of consulting them once glitches happen or perfections are
necessary.

Moreover, when scrutinizing technical feasibility, system configuration is highly prioritized than
the exact hardware it uses. It is because system configuration provides the whole image of what
is required of the system thus it ascertains on the number of terminals mandatory and in what
way the components would be organized in order to function and share information easily and
efficiently.

A software project is thought of as technically viable if the enterprise has the ability to provide
the resources required or if it have the monetary possessions which is enough to acquire the
hardware, applications and technology which is needed by the anticipated system.

Technical expertise
Taken into consideration was the pool of resources at Bulawayo City Council, hence the new
system the developed. Bulawayo City Council, has high skilled IT personnel that are fully
experts and technically competent. However, Bulawayo City Council, have to train system and
database administrator who will be working at the company’s IT offices.

Hardware requirements

Hardware Specifications Quantity available Quantity to

acquire

Computers HP dual core, 2GB 2 1

RAM, 500g HDD
CELLPHONES Android smartphones 2 1
Sim cards Econet sim 1 3

Table2.1 Hardware Requirements

Software specifications
SOFTWARE SPECIFICATIONS AVAILABILITY
REQUIRED
VISUAL STUDIO vs2015 professional available
SQL SERVER SQL server 2016 available

OPERATING SYSTEM Windows10 professional available

MICROSOFT WORD MS word 2016 available

Table2.2 software Requirements

2.6.2 Methods
Various methods were employed by the writer when collecting data about the already existing
system at Bulawayo City Council IT department. The type of information which the scholar tried
to acquire, people which were delivering data, determined which methods were to be used.
2.6.2.1 Document Review
The author was given an identical printed replica of the records which has the illustration and full
details of how the information flows in the current system. Hence the author had an appreciation
of additional understanding of the current system and used this as the foundation in making
enhanced requirements. The author used the current system document which states how current
system works and types computers of which most of them use windows operating system.

2.6.2.2 Observation.
The observation was carried out in different sections on how the currently using their
information system. The first observation was made in the operations section of ICT department
where they prepare monthly receipt for their customers. The other observation was made in the
emergency section department where they manually check for faults and personally get users
complain.

2.7 Judgement on data gathering methodologies

The strategies utilized were extremely fruitful as they gave the answers that were near precise
and allowed to see the current systems shortcomings. Every one of the techniques utilized
realized the same answers and in this way they were extremely valuable and a win.

2.8 Functional Requirements

According to Haralambos and Holborn (1995), this documentation defines how the system
performs and responds to specific inputs to the system and to any particular scenario. They
define what is expected from the system and the activities that the system performs.The
researcher identified functional requirements as services the water rationing scheduling
application system should provide, react to particular inputs and how the system should behave
in particular situations. Below are examples of functional requirements the system must satisfy:

 The Administrator was given more powers (enable/disable/ update) than other users.

 It was ensured that the information entered was of correct format. For example name
cannot contain numbers. If incorrect form of information was added, the user was asked
to fill the information again.

 The system was to be accessed anytime as long there was internet connection.

 For security and control, user access levels were defined.

Non-functional requirements

These describe how the software performs as well as the quality issues related with the system.
Non-functional requirements do not really consider how the system performs but rather stipulates
the measures used to evaluate the system operations (Haralambos and Holborn, 2009).

Non-functional requirements describe how the system works, while functional requirements

describe what the system should do (Blog, 2019).Non-functional requirements defined properties
that make up the water rationing scheduling application system user friendly. Examples of such
properties include:

reliability, responsiveness, storage capacity and output representation and formatting among
others. There are three categories of non-functional requirements:

 Product Requirements – expected product behaviour such as execution speed and

reliability.

 Organisational - These follow guidelines set by the organisation.

 External requirements are requirements that needed to be satisfied but were defined by
external forces such as legislature. For example payment details of residents were legally
confidential.

In general, the requirements guided the development team to develop a system that was relevant
not only to the country, also satisfy other indirect requirements that contributed to socio-
economic wellbeing of the society in addition to fulfilling its direct purpose. For the system to be
considered of quality, it exhibited the following software attributes:

 Reliability: the system received inputs and produced expected results.

 Robustness: The system was able to handle exceptions and errors without unexpected
exit.

 Performance: The system was responsive to the comfort of the user.

 Availability: The system was readily available for users.

 Usability: system was simple and user friendly.

2.9 Use case diagram

Use case diagram is a summary of the user details and how they relate with the system. It is a
graphical representation of the associations among numerous elements of a system (Miloudi and
Ettouhami, 2018). Figure 2.3 illustrates use case diagram for the system.
KEY

2.10 Conclusion
Now in wrapping up, the planning stage mainly focused and having to do with feasibility study,
mitigating facts for coming up with the system. Taking all accomplishments of the planning
chapter, it vividly showed that the system designer is prepared to progress forward to the next
stage of the project. This system project is ascertained to be viable in entire magnitudes as
emphasized in the above segments, the developer will now continue to the following chapter
which is the analysis phase where there will be exploration of the current system being used at
Bulawayo City Council.