Developing a Library System - Research Paper Example

TITLE PAGE PROJECT PROPOSAL DEVELOPING A LIBRARY SYSTEM. BY: PRESENTED TO: PRESENTATION DATE: TABLE OF CONTENTS Cover Page………………………………………………………………………1 Table of Contents………………………………………………………………..2 2.0 Background of the Study……………………………………………………..3 2.1 Factors That Contributed To Project Selection……………………………….4 2.2 Problem Statement……………………………………………….……………4 3.0 Overall Aim and Purpose ………………………………………………………6 3.1 Objectives ……………………………...……………………………………….6 3.2 Project Goals……………………………………….……………………………6 3.3 Scope…………………………………………………………………………….7 3.4 Project Stakeholders…………………………………………………………….7 4.0 Expected Project Outcomes……………………………………………………..8 5.0 Approach and Methodology…………………………………………………….8 6.0 Resources………………………………………………………………………..9 7.0 Project Risk Management……………………………………….……………...10 8. 0 Recommendation………………………………………………………………11 9.0 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………12 10.0 Appendices……………………………………………………………………..13 References……………………………………………………………………………16 2.0 BACKGROUND Project management is a methodological approach to achieving the agreed upon results within a specified time frame with defined resources. This involves application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to achieve results. A library is one of the most essential entities in any learning institution. It acts as the main backbone of every institution because it is aimed for students and staff members to do their research and achieve their academic goals. Due to the dire need of information gathering libraries are involved with a lot of transactions that are carried out in daily basis, ranging from registration of new members, issuing of books, collecting borrowed books, searching of books, searching for members who have overdue books and collecting fines for the overdue books among others. As a business the institution must make profit. This calls for accurate and efficient system to avoid any errors that may lead to losses like loss of books and delay in returning the book by the client. This is because the more the work the more errors are likely to occur hence automating the library would reduce the time consumed by the manual system. The institution library is very sensitive, and it needs a lot of accuracy and ICT technology because it is the only technology that is able to give the required accuracy in the library. Most of upcoming institutions still rely on legacy manually operated library systems in their operations. This makes their jobs more hectic and use a lot o paper work hence the cost of operating the library becomes higher. The manual systems in most institutions are almost impractical in their operation in the library. The large number of transactions carried out per day implies that a large file cabinet is required, a large number of workforce is required e.g. clerks, frequent data loss, frequent loss of books, slow data processing, loss of money as some overdue books may not be charged. This may adversely affect the library and may lead to collapse of the institution since the library is the backbone of every learning institution since it is hard for a learning institution to run without a library. Being a user and a student of a library that has a wider client base, there are many challenges when it comes to managing the books in the library, issuing of books and generating useful reports on the status of the library becomes cumbersome. Considering the problem currently being experienced by the library, there is need to develop a comprehensive system that will streamline business operations within the library by computerizing the operations. This has necessitated the creation of such a project. 2.1 FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTED TO PROJECT SELECTION The main purpose of this project is to develop and provide an easy and affordable library management system to the institution as an alternative to the manual system. The secondary purpose of the project is to help the library cut costs of its operation hence increase in profits. In addition, the following factors contributed greatly in project selection. Enhanced record keeping: with a computerized system, inventory management will be easier and more efficient. Save time and money: the system will reduce paper work and reduce manpower within the library thus saving money. 2.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT The problem statement is to come up with an automated system that will efficiently aid the library to efficiently offer its services to its clients. This project is aimed at increasing the efficiency of service delivery and offers the required accuracy. To upgrade the manual library system to an automated library system to ease the operation of the institution since the library is one of the core pillars of operation in any learning institution. When coming up with this proposal I did some research findings on the manually operated library systems and found out that they had the following limitations. 1. Security: In case of disasters such as fire or theft the records are prone to be lost. Important information may be misplaced and tracing it becomes a problem due to large stacks of documents. Unauthorized personnel might access the records and tamper with them I.e. making changes. 2. Cost The cost of purchasing and maintaining office stationery of the manual system is high. Increase in cost of data storage due to large number of files. 3. Time The process of filing and retrieving of manual records is both cumbersome and tiresome hence time consuming. Wastage of precious man-hours as a result of heavy paper work associated with the system. 4. Efficiency. The manual system is not efficient as far as resources are concerned. It leads to huge stacks of documents. This in turn slows down the operations. 5. Inadequacy The manual system is slow that might result to long queues of students borrowing or returning the books and might in turn get frustrated. 3.0 OVERALL AIM AND PURPOSE The main aim of this project is to remove hassles and decreases workload, while increasing the efficiency and production. The main goal of the proposed project is to effectively minimize confusion, efforts, and costs for the library, automate all common day to day tasks and help the library in the most effective manner possible. The project is aimed at bringing quality automation to the library at an extremely affordable price. 3.1 OBJECTINES The objectives of the proposed project are: To minimize time wastage. To reduce paper work. To enhance data security. To automate filing and retrieval of files. To reduce cost of operating the library. To make it easier tracking of records. 3.2 PROJECT GOALS The major goals of this project is to enhance the operations in a library, making it easier to manage inventory more appropriately and streamline the operations, by making students be served faster and reducing paper work in the operation of the library hence reducing cost of operation. 3.3 SCOPE The project will concentrate mostly in the following major areas i.e. new book registration, member registration, recording borrowed books and the one who has borrowed, date of borrowing and the date to be returned, recording the overdue books and the books available in the library. The project will only be for use by the members of the institution so members of the community are not allowed to use the system. The project has left out the functionality of a student using the system hence only the library staffs have the privilege and right to use the system. The system will have a user interface for a student to login and search the books he or she wants and the system gives the exact location and the reference number. The student can only the system to search for a given book but can’t be able to issue himself a book. The library officials have their user login interface and they are the ones responsible for issuing and receiving of books. They act as the administrators and they are un charge of the system. 3.4 PR0JECT STAKEHOLDERS Stakeholders are the people who contribute mostly in the completion of a project. The project main stakeholders are: Project manager. Institution staff and administration. Library staff. Students. 4.0 EXPECTED PROJECT OUTCOMES Upon successful development and implementation of the proposed system, various benefits will be achieved. The following are some of the benefits: Properly manage information of user and books in the library. Provide faster customer service. Save time and resources. Become fast and efficient. Minimize level of man power. Minimize cost of operation. Tracking every single transaction in the library. 5.1 APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY The project will be expected to be complete within 2 months. The management of the project will follow the conventional project management and software development life cycle. The project work breakdown structure is as follows. The project will undergo the life cycle; initiation planning, design, execution, testing and closing out. The project time estimates are as follows: Task Duration Initiation 1 day Planning 1 week System Design 2 weeks System Development 1 month Testing 1 week User Training 3 days Close-out 1 day Table 1.0: project time estimates 6.0 RESOURCES The resource requirements for this project will mostly rely in human resource and computers. Being a software project, a number of computers will be required. In particular there is need for a central server which will be used to simulate the working environment of the complete project. Laptops will be required for each developer and the project manager. The resource allocation is given by the table below. Task Human Resource Other Resources Initiation Project Manager and project Steering Committee 1 laptop for project manager Planning Project manager and steering committee System Design 1 System Engineer and 2 developers. 3 laptops and 1 central server for application and internet connection, and data backup. System development 1 System Engineer and 2 developers Testing 1 System Engineer and 2 developers User Training Project Coordinator 4 computers, 1 projector Close out Sponsor, project steering committee 7.0 PROJECT RISK MANAGEMENT Risk management entails identifying, assessing and prioritizing risks in a project. Management of risk also involves applying resources economically to reduce the probability of occurrence or the impact that a given event could have on a project. In most cases, risk management strategies strive to reduce risk by transferring it to a third party. However, in the development of this system, the greatest risk is the possibility of a project halt due to lack of funds, shortage of expertise or scope creep. In order to contain these risks, there is need to seek total commitment from all project stakeholders. I have been able to identify the following risks that may occur during development of the project and also their mitigation strategies on how to contain them in case they occur. Risk Mitigation Strategy Not meeting the Estimated Project Schedule Development of a clear project timeline,to manage the time effectively Project Scope Creep Defination of project scope at the start of the project. Continous reviews by the steering committee with the project manager on a monthly basis to prevent any unnoticed scope creep. Cost Estimates Unrealistic Cost estimates will be included in the project plan and will be subject to monthly review by the steering committee. Timeline: Estimates Unrealistic Timeline will be reviews on a weekly basis by the project manager and the entire steering committee. Quality Management: Procedures unclear Defining the quality management , benchmarks at the start of the project. 8. 0 RECOMMENDATION In this study I came up with the following recommendations. From my understanding of the project management the project must be done within the dedicated timeframe as indicated in the proposal. This is to be achieved through the support from the entire stakeholder involved in the project. This will include provision of financial assistance wherever it is required. Project practitioners and organizations must develop flexible and adaptive project designs and plans to accommodate changing institutional needs that are always changing due to the advancement of technology. In order for this project to become a success the project manager should be someone who is innovative and be able to come up with original ideas on the project if there happens to be a problem but he should follow the laid down procedure on project development. 9.0 CONCLUSION Project management is the methodological approach to achieving agreed upon results within a specified time frame and by the use of the defined resources. This involves applying tools, knowledge, skills and techniques. Projects can be started for various uses that may benefit different individuals, community or organization. This depends on the objectives of the project and whether the projects meet the stated objectives. In order for a project to be successful there should be cooperation from all the people involved in the project development. 10.0 APPENDICES Fig 1.0 work breakdown structure and responsibility matrix Figure 2.0 milestones and Gantt chart Figure 3.0 Time plan Figure 4.0 Resources REFERENCES Milstein B. and Scott W. 2012,A Framework for Program Evaluation: A Gateway to Tools,[Online] Available at http://ctb.ku.edu/en/tablecontents/sub_section_main_1338.aspx Nielsen, J. (1993). Usability Heuristics. In Usability Engineering. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. A Guide to project Management Body of Knowledge,(2004), 3rd Edition, Project Management , USA. Burke, R 2006, Project Management: Planning and Control Techniques, 5th edition, www.burkepublishing.com. Read More