Introduction to Movers Transport System Project
Introduction
The 2021 KCSE Computer Project has been out for a while now. As usual, candidates are required to complete the project in 7 months. As with 2020’s project, candidates are expected to submit their progress twice - the first milestone MUST be completed and score keyed in by 30thOctober 2021 and the second milestone similarly by 31st January 2022. Needless to say, a candidate’s second milestone should be seen to be building on the first milestone. There is no particular point in project development that has been specified to demarcate as the first milestone, it is entirely up to individual candidates to decide wisely.
This year's project is titled ‘Movers Transport System’. Candidates are required to develop a well-documented database system for a hypothetical transport company. The company, ‘Movers’ provides transport for various agricultural goods for farmers between farms and retail outlets. The company also transports farm inputs to the farms.
Registration – to access the company’s services, large scale farmers register individually as members of the company whereas small scale farmers are registered in groups of at least 5 small scale farmers. Once registered as a group, the group of small-scale farmers can order for transport as a unit.
Transport cost – the cost of transporting agricultural produce/farm inputs is based on the means of transport, load capacity and destination (cost per km). Vehicles are serviced and fuelled before each trip and the expenses incurred recorded. Each vehicle is assigned loaders whenever it is assigned a transportation task. Drivers are paid a minimum of Ksh. 2000/= per trip while loaders are paid a minimum of Ksh. 200 per vehicle loaded. All these must be factored in computing the cost of a trip.
Drivers - Each vehicle owned by the company is assigned a specific driver who is responsible for the vehicle and ensuring that the cargo arrives at its destination in good condition. Drivers who commit offences in the course of transporting goods are surcharged. A driver is served with a warning letter if surcharged three times. If a driver is served with a warning letter and goes ahead to commit another offence, he/she is suspended for one month. Drivers who are suspended twice within 6 months have their services terminated. In simple terms, such drivers are sacked.
Tax – The company remits 20% of the total revenue as tax to the government.
Key aspects of Fedha Youth Group system project
1. The ability to store (in tables) details of large-scale farmers, details of groups of small-scale farmers and details of small-scale farmers.
2. The ability to store (in a table) details of vehicles owned and operated by Movers Company.
3. The ability to store (in tables) details of loaders and drivers.
4. The ability to store (in tables) details of trips including vehicle expenses.
5. The ability to store (in tables) details of offences committed by drivers.
6. The ability to compute the cost of each trip to the customer.
7. The ability to compute the cost of each trip to the company.
8. The ability to compute the revenue generated from each trip.
9. The ability to compute the tax payable per trip.
10. The ability to compute total company expenses.
11. The ability to compute the company’s overall profit.
12. The ability to generate various other reports that may be necessary.
What you need to come up with a good Movers Transport System project.
This project is pretty straight-forward. You’ll need:
A database management system: Most if not all schools use Microsoft Windows in their computer labs. I recommend Microsoft Access 2010 or higher. MS Access 2010 has some important features not available in Ms Access 2007.
Creativity: You have been tasked with computerizing operations of Movers Company. Don’t make the common mistake of developing a half-computerized system - Computerize as much operations as possible, don't design a calculator! Also note that some operations CANNOT be computerized when developing using a database management system - find a way to minimize such instances and ensure tight integration with the computerized operations.
Solid planning: This is very important. Don't be in a hurry. Take your time to visualize how you want your system to look like, develop a roadmap starting with the basics. Even with a plan, you will meet a few obstacles but you will be able to go back and make corrections if you have a plan. In this case, a plan basically involves coming up with the basic tables and queries you need. Some obvious tables include a large-scale farmers’ details table, a vehicles’ details table and a drivers details' table.
Open-mindedness: Projects are rarely 'easy' More often than not, implementing some question requirements will be a hard nut to crack. Some concepts you may need to use to complete your project successfully might not been taught to you in a classroom scenario. Be curious, utilize the Internet and other resources to learn new formulae, functions etc.
Security: You can achieve this through password-protecting your database as well as regularly backing it up. Once you reach a self-defined milestone, I recommend you save two copies of your Movers Transport System and proceed with one copy. This way if you face hurdles in design or something happens like accidentally deleting a table or a query, you can always go back to the other copy and proceed from there.
© Access Pro Kev
----
Comments
Post a Comment