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Research Description

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Overview of the Current State of Technology

International Care Ministries (ICM) is a non-government organization whose aim is to reach the poor by offering humanitarian help through their programs in medical, livelihood and feeding. Started out on 1992, the said NGO was able to survive the odds with their traditional pen & paper technology in terms of their record-keeping system. The staff manually writes their forms and files them in folders stored in filing cabinets and bookshelves. Since they encounter hundreds of recipients everyday, these files increase simultaneously which results to hundreds of hardcopy files in their tightly packed offices. The said NGO also maintains a softcopy of their documents stored usually as an excel file format. This technologys aim is for easy retrieval of their data. Before, they just settled for volunteered encoders with poor accuracy and speed resulting to faulty softcopy records. But recently, they were able to hire qualified encoders for each department. Though this technology has improved their file storage, file redundancy is still a major problem. The reason why their system has not yet improved is because their budget is limitedly provided by international donors, specifically in Hong Kong. Even now, theyre lack of budget is a factor why ICM has understated inventory in their current system. ICM is divided into several departments namely the Feeding, Medical, Values, Human Resource and Accounting. Each of these departments has their own desktop computer and encoder. Another problem faced by this organization is that their decentralized records. One department wouldnt know that a recipient has already a record in another department which results to record duplication. According to the interview the group had conducted, what the NGO really needs in their record keeping system is a database. A database would eliminate this record duplication and establish a unified record system among these departments. The group has decided to design their initial stage of record keeping system wherein personal information of their clients which are pastors and their respective church members who are the recipient of the organization. The organization has a difficulty in handling their records because they lack a database.

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1.2

Research Objectives

1.2.1

General Objectives

To establish a secured storage system that manages data accurately.

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Specific Objectives

To organize and provide a secured administrative database support storage of accurate and timely information about ICMs recipients, pastors, staff, volunteers and programs.

To prevent redundancy of factual information by the administrative database that the ICM can access and sent their files easily through a network-ready application.

To reduce the average time for solving recipients service issues and lessen the work of ICMs staff and volunteers in their encoding and retrieval of files.

To hasten the pace of delayed assistance of the ICM to the urgent needs of their recipients.

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Scope and Limitation of the Research The research covers the storage of the pastors and recipients profiles. And how

these files flow within the different departments in the organization, how these records are encoded to a unified database is also included. Since the files are considered confidential, the research covers the systems security. The search scope also includes the conversion of data into useful information needed by different departments. The authorization storing and retrieving these files is also discussed in this research. The system can manage the individual information or database from the recipients to secure the confidential records and this particular system can also update, delete, and add the information from the recipients and pastors profile to organize properly. Another thing its easy to the staff to scrutinize the incoming and outgoing recipients form and result. This automated record keeping system can generate the speed and accuracy in terms of maintenance. In fact, the automated system has a security 1-2

password before you are going to use the system and the system provide date registered and date encoded types as well. Members can only choose one program at a time before they proceed in the next program from the available list of programs, and all recipients and pastors must follow the guidelines from the NGO and they need the referral slip and consent their respective senior pastor before they are going to have medical check up from NGO care clinic office. With this level of automated record keeping system need to foretaste and edit data for accuracy and completeness and the authorized person can do anything or perform the delete and updating the data which is the staff only.

However, the encoder can only perform which is encoding the whole data from the recipients and pastors. Not everybody can easily access the automated system. Since the system is automated and local only those who desire to donate are those who were touched by the programs presentation such as medical, feeding, livelihood, film showing, pre-school, special case, and even the committed supporters from the NGO they cannot really perform.

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Significance of the Research

This study is significant to IT as it can pave way to the improvement of the industry. It suggests the automation of the systems of organizations for accurate data storing and for the convenience of both the staffs and users. Through this, the IT industry will improve as demands for system automation increases. The beneficiary from/of this study is the International Care Ministries (ICM) which is a non-profitable, non-government organization. ICM has been manually managing their data for the past years thus; this research aims to aid them with a much easy and reliable automated system. Moreover, this study is not only favorable for ICM but as well as those outside of the organization, namely, the recipients for they can attain faster services from them. The study is significant to the group for it helped us apply the theories weve learned this semester. It also enhanced our logic, analytical, and critical thinking skills and prepared us for our upcoming cap stone project. 1-3

Chapter 3 Research Methodology The group has decided to use the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) as the approach to systematically solve the problem of ICM. The said approach is divided into seven phases. Each has unique activities aiming to accomplish the above-stated objectives. SDLC ensures quality systems with its very detailed establishment process. Another major advantage of using this approach is to maximize the productivity of the systems staffs. 3.1 Identifying Problems, Opportunities and Objectives (Phase 1) In this phase, the group would seek methods in identifying the problems encountered by the organization in terms of their record keeping system. Conducting an interview with the decision maker would be ideal to target their main problem. An observation of the environment while doing the interview is another method. But before anything else, a Gantt chart should be established to organize one by one the tasks needed to be accomplished in this study. 3.2 Determining Information Requirements (Phase 2)

By interviewing the Area Head who is the decision maker of ICM, the group could fish out several problems within the organization in terms of their record keeping system. After the interview and observation, an Ishikawa diagram would be used to expound the main problem sited. The group would also ask for sample documents of their pastors application form and recipients survey form so that we would know if these forms are enough to gather data needed by the organization.

3.3 Analyzing System Needs (Phase 3) After the main problem is identified, a group brainstorming would list down all the possible solutions to this problem. Individuals in the group could offer several opinionated suggestions they think would solve the organizations dilemma. In this phase, a Data Flow Diagram (DFD) is established of the system the group has the decided to work on. The group would document the procedural logic for data flow diagram process starting out with the context diagram, then level-0 diagram and lastly the level-1 1-4

diagram. A data dictionary is constructed to site all the organizations signification records which are used in the DFD. Process specifications method of Structured English would be ideal in making the semi-structured decisions. In this phase, the group would be able to propose the established ideal system for the organization. In this way, the management would take part in giving suggestions in designing and creating the said system. 3.4 Designing the Recommended System (Phase 4) In this phase, the user interface of the system is initially designed so that the group would have a visual imagination of what their system would look like. Data output and input are generated by wireframe without programming. Also, the buttons namely the menu or navigation bar are designed so that the group would have an idea how the system jumps from one page to another. Aside from the design of the interface, the database to be used for the system is also established in this phase. The Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) used in establishing the relationship of each organizational entity would help in designing the files used in the said database. A decision table would be used to site out actions to be used to several conditions made by the system. 3.5 Developing and Documenting Software (Phase 5) This is the phase where the real system is developed using structured charts and pseudo codes. Design of the system is reviewed to improve the systems functionality and consistency. In writing the computer program, software and a computer languages is selected to develop the said system. The group has decided to design the system using PHP and MySQL as the languages in establishing the ideal network-ready system. Software documentation where system manual and procedure in navigating the system will be done in this phase. 3.6 Testing and Maintaining the System (Phase 6) After the program has been developed, this is where it is tested and debugged for errors and loopholes. Semantic and syntax errors are unavoidable in creating a system so there is a great need in testing the softwares functionality and security of the said system. For program improvement, some features may be added to enhance the system. The

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management may take part in this phase so they themselves may give out their comments in improving the program. 3.7 Implementing and Evaluating the System (Phase 7) In this phase, plan conversion is done where the present system of the organization is temporarily changed by the new established system. Users of the software would be taught how the system works. Some equipment needed might be purchased like the barcode scanner for the ID and a local area network router to connect the departments record to a single unified database. The said hardcopies stored in filing cabinets may be initially encoded while the system is being evaluated and reviewed for further improvement.

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