GUIDELINES FOR REPORT FOR MCA FINAL SEMESTER PROJECT The following guidelines are supposed to be followed while writing the reports of the MCA Final Semester projects carried out by the students at various organizations. A very rudimentary template is included assuming a project for Land Acquisition System of XYZ corporation. Many details in this template are particular to the example, but students are expected to extract the objectives of each section in the report from the example. 0. Start writing the report from the initial stage of the project. Firstly create a template containing the names of the chapters and the sections. 1. Do not leave spaces before full-stop, comma, etc. 2. Leave a space after full-stop, comma, etc. 3. Run spell-checker and correct all misspelt words, if any. 4. Read the report once without skipping to remove grammatical errors. Preferably get a friend to repeat this same exercise. 5. Do not use half words such as - deptt, it's, govt., etc. in any formal written text. 6. Do not reproduce routine stuff in various sections of your report, such as - "...feasibility analysis is also called cost benefit analysis...", "...System analysis is the most important phase in the software development..." These are known facts and one can get this information from textbooks. You have to put these knowledge into practice. So in your report bring out how this knowledge has been used in your project. In the template that is included some such points are given, esp. those within square braces ([]). Do not reproduce such portions in your report. 7. In the Context diagram and DFD's, label all the data flow arcs. Do not label boxes with vague terms such as "user" (whoever interacts with the system is a "user"). Mention clearly who is the person who will perform each particular interaction, viz. "Chief Geological officer", "Land Deptt office assistant", "Civil Deptt Engr.", etc. 8. A rough guideline that you can keep in mind is that each information flow from a user to (any module of) the system should correspond to an input form (or a set of input forms) that you have implemented. Similarly, each output from the system to the user should correspond to some report that you have designed. If a particular report is produced by the system against certain input (form) shown by data arcs, then you may show this as two arcs in opposite direction between the system (module) and the user box. Any other pair of interaction (input, output) should be shown with another box. 9. Do not repeat things in the report. Do not worry about the report being too thin ! There are enough essential information without repetition and chances are that you shall have to work hard to put all that in. 10. Start writing the Acknowledgement section from the initial stage of the project. In this mention the names of the persons who help you in various stages of the project and also briefly mention the nature of the help. It is important not to miss out mention of any such person in this section. Finally, however you may arrange this section appropriately. 11. Start creating the Bibliography section from the initial stage of the project. Use the format given in the template in this document. In this section, mention the name of any book, research paper, article, website, etc., that you may have referred for the purpose of this project. Even a book on software engineering, for instance, should find a place in this section if you referred it for clarifying some procedural points. Template -------- INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR LAND DEPARTMENT OF XYZ CORPORATION Acknowledgement CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Information processing is a very vital activity of any organization. Readily available information in more user analyzable format is the key behind a successful organization as it helps immensely in major decision making process. To achieve this goal data management and faster computing capability for data analysis is needed. Computer based information systems are playing a key role in this regard. The work being described here is related to information processing of the land acquisition process of XYZ Corporation. [Write one paragraph about what one means by land acquisition process and why is land acquisition done. Who all are involved and state why the current process needs to be computerised.] [One paragraph about how you got to take up this project and what you have accomplished within this exercise.] PROJECT PROFILE [Point-wise give Problem statement, person doing the project (your name), Guides, Organisations involved, project locations, Duration, Environment, etc.] CHAPTER 2 INITIAL SYSTEM STUDY [About one page about XYZ Corp] LAND ACQUISITION PROCESS IN XYZ CORP The Land Department is one of the several departments under XYZ Corp that is responsible for acquiring and subsequently, releasing any land area that has been found to have the possible potential of yielding ore. The complete process of acquiring of land till its release for extraction of ore to the concerned department is very critical and time bound, because it involves large sums of money. Briefly stated, the process of land acquisition involves the Geological department which identifies the land to be acquired, the Civil department which conducts the survey of the land and makes various estimates, and the Land department which interacts with the public administration authorities and the owners/occupiers of the land to be acquired. The process is well defined and there are well defined formats for representing relevant information at the different stages. Presently, the process is manual. DRAWBACKS OF THE EXISTING SYSTEM The present system is completely manual and hence it has the usual drawbacks of a manual system, such as inconvenient operation, poor security, and poor efficiency. PROBLEM DEFINITION [Give a single line statement of the problem. For example - "To have a computerised system to perform the information processing part in the land acquisition system in XYZ Corp."] THE PROPOSED SYSTEM It has been proposed to computerise the information processing of the overall land acquisition process of XYZ Corp. In this proposed system we wish to overcome the drawbacks of the existing manual system in the following ways- 1. Increase efficiency and convenience by computerising processing and transfer of information. 2. Increase efficiency and reliability by suitable electronic medium for data storage. 3. Increase information security by using suitable security model for information storage and processing. 4. Increase effectiveness by providing efficient and convenient information retrieval methods, and by providing value added information output. SCOPE OF THE SYSTEM The proposed system computerises the information processing of that portion of the overall land acquisition process that is done within XYZ Corp. It encompasses all the stages starting from the Geological department making the request to the Civil department (in a Land Acquisition Form) to conduct the initial survey and estimation of the land to be acquired, till the actual acquisition of the land. Input of data can be stage wise as each stage completes and reports generated for each stage. [Include a Context Diagram here] SCOPE OF THIS PROJECT This project has been done in the sixth semester of the Master of Computer Application (MCA) course of Tezpur University. The period of work is roughly five months. Within this project we accomplish the following part of the system proposed above - 1. Carry out a detailed System Analysis of the land acquisition system. 2. Designing/Creation of relational tables in Oracle RDBMS. 3. Designing of data entry forms to enter and subsequently maintain the information pertaining to the land acquisition process. 4. Generation of various reports at different stages based on specific query by the user input. SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT APPROACH [Briefly list the stages of your project, such as - initial system study, feasibility analysis, detailed system analysis (use of DFD and ER diagram for describing the system), system design (database design, forms design), security model, system implementation (do not confuse implementation with deployment), system testing, system deployment (installing the system, user training, feedback), etc. DO NOT ELABORATE.] CHAPTER 3 FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS From the initial system study we can propose to build a system with the following general architecture. [Include a skeleton architecture diagram] [Requirements for System Deployment, i.e., hardware, software, computer networking facilities, power, manpower, floor space, etc. to install the system and run it for actual operation.] [Requirements for System Development, i.e., hardware, software, networking, manpower, etc. to do the system development] [Behavioural aspects of the proposed system, i.e., computer operation skills shall be required, changed roles of various persons, changed nature of certain operations, etc.] [Justification of feasibility (or infeasibility) considering the above points. This may be broken up into Technical feasibility (required technology exists - either available in the organisation or can be acquired within economic feasibility), Economic feasibility, Behavioural feasibility, etc.] [Conclusion - Final feasibility statement] CHAPTER 3 SYSTEM ANALYSIS INTRODUCTION [Few lines about the methods you used to understand the problem, i.e., how you gather information about the problem - interviewing concerned persons, reading existing documents, using questionnaires, etc.] [Describe the land acquisition process briefly. Such as -] Briefly stated the process of land acquisition process comprises the following steps - 1. The Geological department requests the Civil department to carry out a survey of a proposed site to know about its engineering suitability, the approximate cost of the land including its standing properties, the approximate cost for any construction work for mining, or for accessing the site, etc. This request is made in form LAF-1. 2. Senior personnel of the Civil department carries out a survey of the land. The results of this survey is summarised in LAF-2 in association with the Land department. LAF-2 is presented to the Geological department. 3. The Geological department issues LAF-3 to the Civil department, which is an agreement of the terms and conditions. 4. The Civil department prepares the land map, which is a sketch showing the geographical positioning of the location relative to surrounding areas and sites. This map is given to the Land department to initiate steps for acquisition. 5. The Land department approaches the circle officer, under whom the location falls, with the land map and based on that obtains an approximate list of land owners, within whose land boundaries, the proposed location happens to fall. This listing is called the Chitha Book. The Chitha Book specifies information like the Location/Project name, the village, mouza, district and circle under which the location falls, land details like the daag number, land class (Baari/Foring, Govt. Land, Jolduba, Salitoli, Tea/ Grant), land area, patta type (Annual/Periodic/ Tea Periodic/Tea Grant), the patta number and pattadar details like his name, his fathers'/husbands' name, his address etc. 6. A group comprising people from the survey department and the land department conducts a survey of the location to demarcate and determine exactly the individual occupiers at that location, and the exact area of land they are occupying. The Plot Measurement Records Book is then prepared giving the list of individual occupiers' names, the plot numbers of their plots, other information like their addresses, their fathers'/husbands' names, along with the land areas under their occupancy. 7. A special Assessment Group is formed with members from different departments like Planning, Accounts and Land. This group performs the survey of the plots and determines the properties and their total individual values based on a pre specified listing of all properties and their rates, called the Zirat Book. Finally the Zirat Compensation List is prepared that carries information regarding how much compensation needs to be paid to a particular plot occupier. 8. A Final Landchart, similar in format to the initial chitha book, is prepared which is a more accurate specification of the owners and the area of land owned by them at a particular location. After this phase the land value is determined based on a pre-specified listing of land types and their prices per bigha. 9. Negotiations are carried out with the occupiers or the pattadars (owners). This might fail because of some disagreement or dissatisfaction. 10. When Negotiations Succeed - 10.1 the Sale/Purchase permission of the land is applied for. Then after the receipt of the sale/purchase permission the land value proposal is put up. On approval of this proposal the sale-deed is executed. The sale-deed (daleel) is a document that shows the purchase of the land and is signed by the sub registrar from the district HQ. 10.2 All the monetary transactions are carried out under the supervision of the accounts management which gives approval to and releases the payment cheques. The Land Department keeps record of all such transactions corresponding to a particular location, both for the land owners as well as the occupiers. Such information comprises the amounts to be paid, the cheque number, bank name, cheque issues date, receipt number, the sale-deed number, the date on which the sale-deed was executed et all. 10.3 The mutation is applied for. The mutation is the actual transfer of land from the seller to the purchaser. This comprises the canceling of the name of the seller from the land records in the district office. This is the true acquiring of the ownership rights on the land purchased. But even before the mutation is applied for the mining on the site starts as to minimize the losses due to any delay. 11. When the normal negotiations fail and an agreement could not be reached, the Land department then applies to the Deputy Commissioner who then passes the Role 135/262. Under this role the Government does all the negotiations and irrespective of whether some agreement is reached or not, the land is acquired and given to XYZ Corp. After this the land department progresses with the usual tasks of applying for the sale/purchase permission, getting approval for the payments, applying and getting the mutation, etc. DATA FLOW DIAGRAM OF THE LAND ACQUISITION PROCESS - [Represent the above land acquisition process using a DFD. This DFD describes the actual process that exists. The DFD that models the new system that you are going to develop may be different than this, and that shall come in the design phase. So for the DFD at this stage - 1. The information inputs should correspond to the various forms (e.g. LAF's) in use, the recording of directly observed facts, the direct inputs provided by various persons and recorded by some designated official, etc. 2. The data repositories should correspond to the actual registers, or other data recording methods currently used in the process. 3. The outputs should correspond to the formal reports that are prepared in the existing system as well as the ad hoc information retrievals by different persons at different stages. You should note that in this DFD, the personnel of the various departments should be shown in boxes since they either gives input information to the system or obtains information from the system. The actual data processing (viz., calculating figures, recording facts in registers, etc.) performed by them should be shown in circles. The DFD should be followed by a data dictionary, that unambiguously describes the format of each and every piece of information both in transit as well as in repository.] ENTITY RELATIONSHIP DIAGRAM [The DFD does not reveal the relationship between the various data elements involved in the system. So state these relationship using an ER diagram. This is particularly important if your target system is going to employ a DBMS.] PHYSICAL AND BEHAVIOURAL ASPECTS OF THE SYSTEM [Mention the technical skills of the personnel that may be expected, the information security concerns, desired physical locations for users' interactions with the system (this may reveal the need for a distributed and multi-user system).] CHAPTER 4 SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS SPECIFICATIONS [The SRS is actually the result of the system analysis that is performed. While the system analysis describes the problem, the SRS defines the desired characteristics of the solution. The SRS may have the following sections and subsections (adopted from Pankaj Jalote's textbook on Software Engg.), and you may cite references to appropriate sections of the Systems Analysis chapter in the SRS sections. While some of the following sections may be omitted because you do not really have anything to put there, the ones marked `*' should not be ignored.] 4.1 General Description *4.1.1 Product Perspective [Relationship of the system to other systems - defining if the system is independent or is a part of a larger system, and what are its principal interfaces. Multiple points of system interface (multiuser requirement) may be mentioned here.] *4.1.2 Product Functions [General high-level description (i.e., overview) of the functions to be performed by the system. Suitable diagrams may be used here.] 4.1.3 User Characteristics [A statement about the characteristics of the end-user of the system - status, technical competence, etc.] 4.1.4 General Constraints [Are there any factor that prevents one from designing and implementing a fanciful/ideal solution (system), viz., time, resource, technical expertise, etc.] 4.1.5 Assumptions and Dependencies [Primarily, operating conditions (power supply, load on the system, etc.) under which the system is supposed to function, end-user behaviour that is assumed, etc. One way for a new person who writes this section after actually implementing the system, to decide what to include in this section is to go through the implementation and identify places where some defensive checks could have been placed. If there is any such missing check, then an appropriate assumption can be included in this section to justify the omitting of the check. But note that not all such omissions can be justified by assumptions !] *4.2 Functional Requirements [Describe each functionality of the system one at a time. A functionality can be a information processing functionality involving some mathematical functions, a data input/output/transfer functionality, special processing functionality for system maintenance, etc. A data storage requirement can be expressed in terms of appropriate input and output functions.] 4.2.1 Functional Requirement 1 : : 4.2.n Functional Requirement n *4.3 External Interface Requirements 4.3.1 User Interfaces [Components of input forms, their break-ups into multiple stages, format and description of output/reports, etc.] 4.3.2 Hardware Interfaces [Hardware that the client intends to deploy - computer classes, printer types, communicating devices, etc.] 4.3.3 Software Interfaces [If the system has to interact with other software then a description of the information exchange formats. For instance - data import from some existing DBMS, data export to some plotter or some report generation package to be used along with this system, etc.] 4.4 Performance Requirements 4.5 Design Constraints 4.5.1 Standard Compliance [Any official or de facto standards that are to be followed.] 4.5.2 Hardware Constraints 4.6 Other Requirements 4.7 Scope of this project [If the entire system development is not targeted in this project mention this here briefly] CHAPTER 5 SYSTEM DESIGN INTRODUCTION [A brief overview of the design work. This includes the design methodology and approach that you have adopted (specify any technical name of the methodology, if such terms exist, such as object-oriented design, etc.] SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE [You may refer to the architecture diagram you have included in the Feasibility Analysis chapter, if that architecture has been taken without modification. If during design phase, that architecture has been modified, then present a diagram here. This diagram should depict the hardware and software (high-level only) modularity of the system, the client-server identification of modules, and other such high level details.] [Give a brief textual description of the architecture. Keep in mind the system requirements and see that the architecture meets the requirements.] MODULE DESIGN [Assuming structured design) [The data flow that has been described in the System Analysis chapter may require changes for the purpose of design. Such as - 1. In a manual system (that was described in the DFD in the Analysis phase) there may be redundancy in inputs from the user - such as entry-date (in a computerised system date can be generated by the system), details of some entity which already exist in the system, etc. 2. Also, the new system may support more queries which in turn correspond to new input and output interfaces. 3. The modularity depicted in the DFD of analysis may be changed for design. So include Data Flow Diagrams that describe the system from the design perspective. There may be DFD in multiple levels (level 1, level 2, etc.) Give the data dictionary corresponding to the design DFD. The attributes of data elements should not conflict with those of the analysis DFD. For instance a data item that was described as a string of upto 30 alphabetic letters should not be described to be of some smaller size now. Give the process description of each module shown in the DFD. This description shows the functionality of a module.] DATABASE DESIGN [Assuming that there will be some DBMS used] [Describe the database schema you have designed. Cite references to the ER diagram given in the Analysis chapter. In some situations, the ER diagram may require modifications, especially if the new system is going to add new functionality involving new entities and relationships. In such case give the modified ER diagram before describing the relational schema.] [Storage Capacity Requirements - Evaluate the storage requirements per record and derive approximate relationship between physical parameters (such as, single land acquisition deal) to storage requirements.] INPUT OUTPUT DESIGN [Describe the data input formats (Forms, etc.) and the report formats in terms of contents. The layout of these need not be specified in detail here. Sample forms and reports may be included in an appropriate Appendix.] ALGORITHM DESIGN [Describe the non-trivial algorithms that you have designed here. You may cite references to sources from where you have taken certain algorithms, and omit details of those. In this section you should also describe any significant data structures.] ELECTRONIC DATA COMMUNICATION DESIGN [Networking considerations. You may indicate that you have used the inherent networking capabilities available in the platform you are going to use (such as Oracle over Novell Netware, TCP/IP support in Digital UNIX, etc.). If the existing provisions in the platforms are not adequate, then describe the communication model you are going to implement.] SYSTEM MAINTENANCE [System installation procedure, backup, system operation logs, trouble shooting provisions, etc.] OTHER ALTERNATIVES CONSIDERED [Some other design possibilities that were considered and why those were not adopted. These alternatives may be regarding methodology, architecture, input, output, or algorithms.] CHAPTER 6 SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION HARDWARE COMPONENTS [List the hardware units that have been selected for the system. Give little details such as - processor, clock frequency, memory, hard-disk, cartridge drive, multi-media components (only if your system uses them).] SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENT [Describe the software features over which your system shall run - which OS, which DBMS, etc.] SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM [Describe the platform that have been used to develop the system. This includes, hardware units, programming environment (including choice of compilers), DBMS, software development tools (e.g., front-end tools), etc.] PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENT STATUS [Briefly state how much of the targeted scope could be accomplished, what are some critical aspects, if any, that needs to be taken care of to complete any remaining part.] GUIDELINES FOR CONTINUATION [Any guidelines that you seem necessary for others who may continue the work so as to ensure smooth implementation.] CHAPTER 7 SYSTEM TESTING TEST PLAN [Overall plan for system testing - different types of testings planned to be done, notional schedule, and broad aspects to be covered under the testing.] TEST CASES [Details of individual tests to be carried out. This should specify system configuration for the test, inputs to be given, outputs expected and persons involved] CHAPTER 8 CONCLUSION [Few concluding remarks and possible future directions. Do not make sections in this chapter.] APPENDIX A USER MANUAL INSTALLATION MANUAL REFERENCE MANUAL MAINTENANCE MANUAL [Backup, operation log, trouble shooting.] APPENDIX B TEST REPORT [This should correspond to the Test cases already enlisted. Here record the observations, record repetitions (due to unexpected test outcome and subsequent retry after any system correction)] APPENDIX C INPUT OUTPUT FORMATS PAPER FORMS USED IN THE ORGANISATION [Attach copies of all existing paper input and output forms] INPUT FORMS IN THE NEW SYSTEM [Attach copies of all forms designed in this project] OUTPUT FORMATS IN THE NEW SYSTEM [Attach copies of all output reports with test data] APPENDIX D [Others] BIBLIOGRAPHY [Entries should be in the following format (indices should be within square braces) :] [1] W. Wulf, R. K. Johnsson, C. B. Weinstock, S. O. Hobbs, and C. M. Geschke, [1975]. The Design of an Optimizing Compiler, 2e, American Elsevier, New York, N. Y., pp. 44-56 [Book : In the above have the title - The Design of an Optimizing Compiler - in italics. 2e is the edition. American Elsevier is the Publisher. N.Y. is the name of the state - you may name the country. 2e is the edition of the book. pp. 44-56 is the relevant pages in the book.] [2] M. Worring and A.W.M. Smeulders, "Digitized Circular Arcs: Characterization and Parameter Estimation", IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, vol 17, 1995, pp. 587-598 [Periodical : In the above have the name of the publication - IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence - in italics.]