(1) INTRODUCTION TO THE SYSTEM

1.1 DEFINITION

“Hostel Management System”

Hostel Management system is the system that manages the student data, staff data students’ admission process and create receipt for the fees paid by the student who stay in the hostel and also help in maintaining visitor’s messages.

2.1 INTRODUCTION TO EXISTING MANUAL SYSTEM Existing system is based on manual work and all the process are done manually, so they maintain registers and files for recording all the details of the system.
They maintain several registers for recording the entry of daily transactions such as visitors visited the hostel, visitor drop the message for a particular student, etc.
They maintain the record of the students so they keep each and every information regarding the students in the student master file. In the similar fashion they maintain the records of their fees so they keep each and every information regarding their fees details in the fees master file.
They keep the bill Book or receipt Book to maintain the record for the fees collected by the student.
They maintain the register or Book for staff so they can pay the salary.
Thus maintaining Staff information, Student Information, Visitors information, Check-in and Checkout information and all the things are done manually.

2.2 PROBLEMS FACED BY EXISTING MANUAL SYSTEM
[PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION]

The phase of system analysis process deals with problems that are affecting in the current manual system. The problems are those, which are affecting the organization in it daily routine work.

As the growing trend in InfoTech World of computers need of accuracy, perfect ness, speed and high memory data storage is a must. Each and every problem must be solved with a least amount of time and energy.
The problems faced by existing system are described as below:

• Difficulty in Maintenance of Records.
• Time Consuming.
• Editing of data becomes a tedious job.
• No Security of Data.
• Mistakes Occurring in long Calculations [Total fees, percentage calculations, etc.]
• Proper Generation of Report (i.e. Fees, etc.)
• Lack of Efficiency and Man Power.
• High Data Redundancy.
• Data Inconsistency.

 Difficulty in Maintenance of Records:
It is very difficult to maintain data record in the system as all the records are entered in the register or the respective record books. There are chances of the record books or files in which all the data is kept may be torn or wearied out or some other damages which results in the destroyed data. Also a problem occurs if the data file or register is misplaced somewhere else and is not getting at the time of actual requirement of the data stored. It is also difficult to maintain old files and registers which have data of past years, which the government has kept for future references.

 Time Consuming:
It is very time consuming process to write each and every entry in the database register. Also it takes a lot of time if all the entries are repeated. In the system processes such as making different type of reports, preparing merit lists, tedious calculations are examples of time consuming process in the system.

 Editing of Data:
Manual written data cannot be changed or edited once written. If there is a mistake and if we try to rub and write it again it makes the register very dirty and untidy, which creates a bad impression of the business. If data is entered incorrect whole document gets incorrect while editing wrongly entered data cannot easily solve errors.

If one had done some wrong entry then to edit the data one has to go through lots of records and, again and again editing the record makes it difficult to read.

 Data Insecurity:
As the data is stored in files or registers, it is not in a secure place. As the storage media here are files and books or registers there are chances of getting these storage media lost, torn, or it may go in the hand of wrong person, which can destroy the database, or it can also be destroyed accidentally. Also in the system data should be shown to the person according to his position in the Hostel, everybody should not be allowed to use all the data.
If the data goes in the hand of wrong person then he/she may take the advantage of the data and the Hostel may loose its market value. So security is the major aspects of the Hostel System.

 Report Generation:
After collecting all the fees of the student the collection report is prepared and on the basis of which the admission procedure is carried out.

 High Data Redundancy:
As mentioned in the current system, due to maintenance of so many registers there is a high redundancy of data i.e. same data is recorded repeatedly.

 Data Inconsistency:
Here as mentioned in the above step the same information is written in more than one place that creates the problem, when there is a change or deletion in the recorded data.
For example if we would like to change the name of the Student due to some mistake earlier or due to some other circumstances, first we will have to identify the places where the name are recorded and then are updated this leads to a very time consuming process and if this is not done properly causes high data inconsistency in the later stages.
The above given problems are the problems of the general system but there are some problems that occur in Hostel Management System are given later. 3.1 INTRODUCTION TO THE PROPOSED SYSTEM The manual system of “ RANAK Hostel” is to be computerized in order to overcome the problems, which affects the existing manual system. Computerizing the existing system with the help of some programming language, database package ease the work of the system up to a great extent.
Generally, there has been a criterion to work on any job or task for a specific purpose. Nobody works without specific detailed information about the particular task he is performing. Thus, any transaction can be performed either student admission or fees collection or check in and check out. In the computerized system, the first screen of the system would be a welcome message and a list of menus. These menus contain the options of either collecting the information of any student or Hostel or the number of seats available in Hostel, etc.
Any transaction can be performed in Hostel Management System i.e. routine processes.
After the transaction is completed the user can log off from the system by simply quitting from the system.
The main objective of the proposed system is to help the user. The system can be handy to the user in the following reasons:

 To provide quick and efficient means for gathering the student information along with their rooms, Fees of Student and finally the Check in and check out of student.
 To automize the work such as gathering student information, posting message, gathering staff information.
 To automize the different types of reports.

3.2 FEATURES OF PROPOSED SYSTEM

The “Hostel Management System” of the organization is developed to overcome the most of the problems occurring in the manual system by computerizing the existing system. The features of the newly proposed computerized system are described in brief as below:
After computerizing the system, the committee of the organization or the user of the system can finish their work in least amount of time and efforts. The computerized system has many gains and efforts, which the manual system can’t give, in any type of situations.
In any manual system if we take, the main problem arising is to maintain the number of records and finding a particular record. In manual system the user has to not down that the check-in and checkout of each and every student and also deliver the messages of each student given by the visitors and which is very tedious task, but in the case of computerized system the user just has to enter once and automatically all the messages delivered by all the visitors will be displayed and thus the user does not have to worry because all the work done is automatically and the system itself.
Computerized systems are most helpful in dealing with areas where database comes into the existence. A computer can hold large amount of data in its storage devices and it can operate at very high speed. The user can put the entire information in the computer and can be able to perform any type of task which when done manually is tedious and time consuming. The new system will have the facility to sort data according to any specific type on the basis of what the user wants in any order. Also with the help of computerized system if the user wants to access any single user’s data from many users data he can automatically get the desired data of the desired student or staff or fees details, etc. in a fraction of second which is again time saving and very quick.

Some of the features of the proposed system are given below:
• Maintaining the Database for student, staff, fees, Hostels, check-in and checkout, etc.
• Removal of Data Redundancy.
• Data Consistency.
• Leave messages.
• Menu driven interface.
• Ensure data security.

The main features of Hostel Management System are given below:
(1) As computer can store large amount of data it is very useful to store information of such a large database. Any information regarding total number of students in the Hostels. Also information regarding fees of each and every student.
(2) The Message Passing can be easily prepared by sorting the student and according to the visitor. We can develop a command or program, which directly sorts the total number of applicants into ascending order.
(3) Inconsistency caused due to changes in the database is removed as a separate database can be maintained for total number of students in the Hostels. So the database is directly updated in response to the any change taking place and we don’t have to go through all the forms once again.
(4) Communication with the students to inform them about the message arrived when they are not in the college. And the total number visitors visited the hostel.

3.3 FACT GATHERING TECHNIQUES

àInformation gathering in any Centralized Hostel System is not an easy task. It has to be gathered in an organized way so that

(a) No system details are left out.
(b) Right problems are identified.
(c) Repetitive work is avoided.
(d) Wrong or incomplete details are not collected.

 To do this, a proper search strategy must be decided first, search strategy includes selecting information sources and search methods.
 It also includes modeling methods to make sense out of information so collected.
 Here an overall idea about the search methods or fact gathering techniques which are used while gathering the information, they are:

(1) Interviewing.
(2) Record inspection.
(3) Observation.

 These techniques are used in system analysis and design stage.

I have visited a many times at the “Pushpakamal Hostel” to get information as well as the basic problems which are occurring in the current existing manual system. As each and every person in the Pushpakamal Hostel has different types of job to be done so I met some of the people of the “Pushpakamal Hostel”.

(1) Interviews:

 Interview allows the analyst to collect or gather the information from the individual or group who are generally the current user of the existing system or potential user of the proposed system.
 They may be managers or employee of the firm itself who provide the data for the proposed system and who will be affected by it.
 As far as interview is concerned, it is a time consuming process.
 It is a basic source of qualitative information.
 It allows the analyst to discover areas of misunderstanding, indication of resistance to the proposed system.

User interviews were conducted to determine the qualitative information. These interviews, which were unstructured interviews, provided opportunity to gathered information from respondents who are involved in the process for a long time. These interviews provided information such as

 Activities involved in process allocating room to students.
 Activities involved in the process of collection of fees.
 Activities involved in the process of verification of rooms and its seats.
 Preparing the various reports.
 Admission procedure.
 Limitation of existing system.
 Problems faced by the user in the existing system.

(2) Record Review:

 It is said to better believe in records than in people.
 Thus a good analyst always gets facts from documents.
 An existing system can be better understood by examining existing documents, forms and files.
 Records may include:
1) Written policy manuals.
2) Rules and regulations.
3) Standard operating procedures used in Hostel Management System
4) Forms and documents.
 A good documentation system provides relationships and interaction between them.
 Analyst also can know about Hostel Management System structures, activities, procedures and flow of data.
 E.g. from Hostel Management System chart one can know formal grouping of people in a department.
 Analyst through good analysis can get answers to questions like:
1) Who uses the forms?
2) Do they include all necessary information?
3) How readable and easy to follow is the records?
4) Is it ideal for analysis and inferences? Etc.
To gather details about Hostel Management System, many kinds of records and reports were reviewed. The study covered.
 Standard operating procedure
 Reports generated by the existing system.
 Document flow (input/output) of Hostel Management System
 Process of allocating of seats to the students.
 Process of collecting the forms.
 Process of forms verification.
 Process of Admission.
 Types and format of database registers.

(3) Observation:
 Observation can bring in missed facts, new ways to improve the existing procedures, duplicate work done inadvertently, etc.
 Observation can bring in what other fact-finding methods cannot! But this task is delicate because people do not like to be observed when they work.
 It is not the quantity of time observed is important but the unorthodox angles of observation of the work content and methods are going to be rewarding.
 Observation gives analyst the opportunity to go behind the scenes in a Hostel Management System to learn inside story to discover how things work in new areas of information.
 Observation can look for:
(a) Operational inefficiencies.
(b) Alternate routes and procedures.
(c) Interruptions in the normal flow of work.
(d) The usage of files and documents.
(e) Informal communication channels, etc.
 On site observation provides close view of the working of the real system.
 He can observe people, objects, documents and occurrences of events.