Feasibility Study and Requirements Determination

Introduction
Abstract
Financial records management system is supposed to assist both the users and management carry out
their day to day tasks with ease, and within a short period of time. The new system will also provide
accurate information to both management and members/customers.

The new system will make use of ICT technology to streamline company operations and also bring about
the numerous advantages that technology brings to a company or organization.

Background
C & A company have been using a manual system with a minimal of Microsoft excel. Initially the system
was sufficient for a starting company and lack of competitors in the types of services the offer.

However, with the use of ICT systems in almost every aspect of life C & A Company is no longer at ease.
Members are no longer happy with the way they are served when they visit the company, fear of new
emerging similar companies has gripped the company. They have also realized that they can make
substantial savings in terms of labor and office space if they embrace the use of ICT.

The proposed financial management system will bring about the changes needed to make it easy and
less time consuming to perform day to day tasks. Management will have quick access to accurate data
enabling them to make well-informed and accurate decisions. Members/customers will not need to
queue long to be served.
Feasibility Study
Feasibility study has been carried out to determine the viability and suitability of the financial records
management system.

The proposed financial records management system has been evaluated in the following areas:
- Economic Feasibility
- Operational Feasibility
- Technical Feasibility
- Social Feasibility

1. Economic feasibility
The proposed system’s tangible and intangible economic benefits outweigh its costs as shown in the
table below.

Benefits and Costs Estimates

Costs Benefits
Description Value in Kshs Description Value in Kshs
Development Cost 200,000.00 Reduction in labor 180,000.00
cost per annum
Hardware / Software 300,000.00 Savings in rooms 240,000.00
rental per annum
Running Costs Per Annum 50,000.00
Maintenance Costs Per 20,000.00
Annum

Non-tangible benefits include:

 Customer Satisfaction – Accurate and timely reports will definitely increase members’
satisfaction. We expect the system to generate reports within one minute
 Timely and accurate decisions. – Management will be availed with accurate information and
within a short period of time to facilitate timely and accurate decision making.

Therefore within an approximate period of three years the benefits of the new system will have
outweighed the costs of developing and running the new system.

2. Operational Feasibility
Effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed system is far beyond what the current system is
offering. It’s a user friendly system and all steps will be taken to ensure staff and management are
 well trained in using the system and the development will be user oriented to ensure all their
requirements are met.

3. Technical Feasibility
All hardware and software required for development and implementation are locally available at a
reasonable price. Each user will require a core i3 desktop or laptop with a 3 GB RAM, 250 GB hard
disk and a windows 7 or 8 or 10 operating system. MS office will be required in the computer that
will host the database. A small LAN wireless network will be set up to interconnect all PCs and other
devices such as printers. The company will employ a technically sound employee to address
technical problems when they arise as soon as possible.

4. Social Feasibility

The system is a normal business operations system that does not affect the neighboring society in
any way. The stress related problems and other social effects on employees will be taken care of.

5. Legal Feasibility
Member’s data and other personal data shall be stored and processed as per data protection act 1998.
Operating system and all other supporting software shall be acquired legally.
Requirements Determination
Requirements determination was carried out in two steps. First I gathered data about the current
system and later analyzed the gathered information to determine both functional and non-functional
requirements.

Data Gathering
I used the techniques listed below to gather users’ requirements:

- Interviewing

- Questionnaires

- Observation

- Documents study

1. Interviewing

I interviewed five key users of the current system together with the top management. I started with the
top management so as to understand the main functions of the system and the expected role the
proposed information system is supposed to play in attaining company’s objectives. The data entry
clerks and operations manager interviews helped me understand how they use the current system to
perform their day to day tasks, the problems they face and the additional functions they want the new
system to perform.

Sample Interview Questions and Corresponding Answers

Interviewee Name: Jane Mwende

Job Title: Data Entry Clerk

1. Describe your daily work.

My work is to maintain members’ records. I help new members fill membership form, and
then file the filled forms. If a member want to exit, I extract his/her membership form,
help him/her fill the exit form, which he/she takes to the cashier for withdrawal of
his/her savings. After the cashier gives the member his/her savings he/she gives me the
exit form for filing. It’s my responsibility to maintain member’s records and provide those
records when needed.

2. What challenges do you face in performing your daily duties?

We have huge number of members and therefore members’ files have increased in
number. To get a single file takes me a lot of time and is usually hectic on a busy day.
With age paper records sometimes become illegible, loose papers are easily lost.
 4. What do you think should be done to overcome the above challenges?
A better filing system probably an electronic one can help a lot. I would like a system
whereby the only tedious task is to transcribe members’ details. After that all
information can be made available by a click of a button.

Interviewee Name: Joseph Kimani

Job Title: Cashier

1. Describe your daily work.

I receive and record savings made by members. I also record withdraws made by
members. I also unveil members’ statements when requested to do so.

2. What challenges do you face in performing your daily duties?

After members submit withdrawal and deposit slips, I enter those details in an excel
worksheet, so that by the end of the day I can show or provide a list of transactions for
the day, if needed. At the end of the month or when needed I have to put all members’
transactions together so as to produce members’ statements. Sometimes errors do occur
when putting all these information together, and a lot of effort is required to produce a
single member’s statement.

3. What do you think should be done to overcome the above challenges?

We need a system that can do the computations for us, organizes records in such a way
that they can be easily accessed, and incorporates data entry controls.

2. Questionnaires

Questionnaires helped gather information from some of the users who were unavailable for interviews
and those who were not comfortable with the interviews. The answers given helped in supplementing
the information provided during interviews.

From the questionnaire I found out that the same problems raised during interviews are only ones. The
problems include:

1. Long time taken in responding to member’s requests

2. Loss of information held in loose papers
3. Several rooms used in storing manual records
4. A lot of time taken to locate errors in case it is detected

3. Observation of the work environment

I was granted permission to work with them for two days, to understand first-hand the functions of the
current system and where improvements are needed.

I found out the following:

 1. A simple request by a member such as his/her current balance could take as much as five
minutes.
2. Filling of new member’s form was strenuous to some members because of poor form design.
3. Data entry clerks were spending most of the perusing large volumes of files to get a small piece
of information instead of serving members.
4. There are no exhaustive measures in place to secure the manual records.

4. Sampling of Existing Documentation, and Forms

I studied the current system’s data capture forms, customers’ statements and other reports. From these
documents I found out what output is expected, the source and details of input data.
Functional Requirements/Analysis
1. Recording
1.1 The system will allow data entry clerks to record and edit new groups and members
1.2 The system will allow data entry clerks to record deposits made by members.
1.3 The system will allow data entry clerks to record withdrawals made by members.
1.4 The system will allow recording of exit by members

2. Computations
2.1 The system will compute members’ balances for each month and produce members’
statements when needed
2.2 The system will provide information on available funds to the management for investments
financing
2.3 The system will compute profits for each member based on the ratio provided by
management.

Non-Functional Requirements
1. Operational
1.1 The system should run on desktops, laptops with windows 7 operating system and above
1.2 The system should interface with the investments management system (to be developed
soon).
1.3 The system should connect to both wired and wireless printers
1.4 The system should run in a wireless Local area network

2. Performance
2.1 The system should support three data entry or cashiers in a local area network.
2.2 The system should provide members balances real-time.
2.3 The system should provide members statements in less than a minute
2.4 The system should perform automatic backup, every 20 minutes

3. Security
3.1 No user can access any other user’s account apart from system administrator.
3.2 No use of external disks should be allowed.
3.3 Editing of existing transaction and records should only be done by the authorized staff.
3.4 Only the directors can approve member exit.
3.5 Only directors can determine and release funds for investment
3.6 Every PC must installed with antivirus software and updated regularly

4. Cultural and Political

4.1 Company policy says that all computer equipment must be from established brands such as
dell, IBM, HP and Toshiba.
4.2 Members’ personal information is protected in compliance with the Data Protection Act.
Diagrams
The diagram below is top-level DFD of the proposed system.

Projects Team
Members file
Existing Members manual file
Total Available Return on
Current Balance Funds Investments
Member Details Balances
Group name, member
name, Opening Balance,
Member Details 4. Compute
New Member
1. 2. 3. Compute Profit
Record available sharing ratio
Record
Transaction funds
member

Members’ Profit
Transaction type,
Get
member, amount Deposit, Withdrawal,
Member details + Opening member Profit
Amount Members File
Balance statement
Transactions file
Statement

Transaction type, amount

Member
Transactions file
 Use Case Diagram
I have used the use case diagram to demonstrate the users of the system and the functions
they perform using the system.
Actors

 Cashier
 Data entry clerk
 Management
Use Cases

 Record Group/Member
 Edit Group/Member
 Produce member statement
 Receive Deposit
 Record Withdrawal
 Give funds for projects
 Determine profit sharing ratio

Record new Receive deposit

Group/Member

Edit
Group/Member Cashier
Record
Data Entry Clerk Withdrawal

Produce
Group/Member
Statement

Give funds for

projects

Management

Determine profit
sharing ratio
Literature Review
The proposed financial records management system is key to C & A Company both in improving
efficiency and effectiveness in running their day to day tasks and to remain competitive in their
area of business.
One of the key objective of an information system is users’ satisfaction in terms of being able to
do what they want and the effort and time needed to perform any task. Fang-Ming Hsu et.al,
2009. The financial records management system will be make it easy to enter transactions and
records and retrieve required information.
Financial records management system will be key in reducing operational costs in C &
Company. Records and transactions will be stored in fixed hard disks and external disks such as
flash disks, which are far much cheaper compared to keeping loose papers which will require
printing, storage rooms etc. The new system will require less data entry clerks which will reduce
redundancy and labor costs. (Laudon, 1990)
Data or records in papers can only be secured by restricting entry into storage rooms,
employing security and other security measures. However a computerized information system
such as financial records management system can incorporate both physical and software
security measures. It is also easier to backup and recover electronic data. (International Journal
of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences Vol. 7 (2), pp. 30–43,
© 2017 HRMARS)
No business can thrive without taking into account the activities and developments of its
competitors. Information technology has become one of the key tools to help a company gain a
competitive edge & A has been lucky to survive with a manual system because of unique nature
of her business. This conducive environment will not last forever and financial records
management system is a first step in preparing for a perceived stiff competition in the near
future. (See Gregory L. Parsons, “Information Technology: A New Competitive Weapon,”
Sloan Management Review, Fall 1983, p.