<Education and Training Systems>

A Project Proposal
Presented to
The Faculty of STI College Tacurong

In Partial Fulfilment
Of the Requirements for the Degree
Bachelor of Science in Information Systems

<Santiago, Mark Louie A.>

<Acob, Al-Muzain B.>
<Patacsil, Alvin Naire M>

Engr. Leila B. Guerrero, Ph.D

Subject Coordinator

August 2019

STI College Koronadal/Tacurong

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
Title Page i
Approval Sheet ii
Table of Contents iii
I. Introduction
a. Background of the problem
b. Overview of the current state of technology
c. Project Rationale
II. Project Description
a. Problem Statement
b. Proposed Research Project
i. General Objectives
ii. Specific Objectives
iii. Scope and Limitations
iv. Methodology of the Study
III. Project Management
a. Calendar of Activities
b. Resources
IV. Appendices
a. References
b. Resource Person/s
c. Personal Technical Vitae

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I. INTRODUCTION

a. Background of the Problem

Handling of accounts payable in schools canteen was never optimized with a plan based
on leading accounts payable and invoice handling practices. In this way, there is an
opportunity to improve the internal accounting operations and create strong background
for future development.

This project proposal will take a look on schools canteen’s accounts payable with focus on
the invoice handling processing in an effort to provide adequate assessment, analysis,
and possible optimization plan.

b. Overview of the Current State of Technology

Apparently, the schools canteen is currently using the traditional manual system of
recording in accounts payable. As an old practice it is unreliable because if someone
forgets to write orders/sold products it can affect the outcome of the records. The
problem arises when recently, one of the staff of the schools canteen misplaced the
records of the sales and forget to write it down on the notebook.

Over time, they notice that the current manual system they‘re using is not reliable. In
order to help the establishment to have reliable and hassle free way of recording the
sales and the recording of accounts payable, we recommended to the establishment to
use POS system (Point of Sales) to have easier recording of services.

c. Project Rationale

It states the significance of finding a solution to the problem. It gives a detailed

explanation of why the project needs to be implemented.

II. PROJECT DESCRIPTION

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a. Problem Statement

One of the most important goals (if not the most important goal) of any problem
statement is to articulate the problem being addressed to the reader in a way that's clear,
straightforward, and easy to understand.

First Paragraph: Describe the "ideal" state of affairs. Provide a background context first so
that problem (and its solution) are easier to understand for the reader. While conciseness
is something every piece of practical writing should aim for, it's even more important to
be well-understood. Start by describing how things should work. Before you even
mention your problem, explain in a few sentences how things would be if the problem
didn't exist.

Example: "The boarding protocols used by ABC Airlines should aim to get each flight's
passengers aboard the plane quickly and efficiently so that the plane can take off as soon
as possible. The process of boarding should be optimized for time-efficiency but also
should be straightforward enough that it can be easily understood by all passengers."

Second Paragraph: Explaining the Problem: let's say that we work at a major airline and
that we've noticed that the way passengers board our planes is an inefficient use of time
and resources. In this case, we might begin our problem statement by describing an ideal
situation where the boarding system isn't inefficient that the company should shoot for,
like this:

Example: "However, ABC Airline's current passenger boarding system is an inefficient use
of the company's time and resources. By wasting employee man hours, the current
boarding protocols make the company less competitive, and by contributing to a slow
boarding process, they create an unfavorable brand image."

Third Paragraph: Explain the Problem’s financial Cost

Soon after you state your problem, you'll want to explain why it's a big deal — after all,
no one has the time or resources to try to solve every single minor problem. In the

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business world, money is almost always the bottom line, so you'll want to try to highlight
the financial impact of your problem on the company or organization you're writing for.
For instance, is the problem you're discussing keeping your business from making more
money? Is it actively costing your business money? Is it damaging your brand image and
thus indirectly costing your business money? Be as exact and specific about the financial
burden of your problem — try to specify an exact dollar amount (or a well-supported
estimate) for your problem's cost.

For our airline example, we might proceed to explain the problem's financial cost like
this:

"The inefficiency of the current boarding system represents a significant financial burden
for the company. On average, the current boarding system wastes roughly four minutes
per boarding session, resulting in a total of 20 wasted man-hours per day across all ABC
flights. This represents a waste of roughly $400 per day, or $146,000 per year."

Fourth Paragraph: Back up your assertions.

No matter how much money you claim your problem is costing your company, if you can't
back up your claims with reasonable evidence, you may not be taken seriously. As soon as
you start making specific claims about how serious your problem is, you'll need to start
supporting your statements with evidence. In some cases, this may be from your own
research, from data from a related study or project, or even from reputable third-party
sources.

Let's reexamine the sentences we used in the previous step. They describe the cost of the
problem, but don't explain how this cost was found. A more thorough explanation might
include this:

Example: "...Based on internal performance tracking data, [1] on average, the current
boarding system wastes roughly four minutes per boarding session, resulting in a total of
20 wasted man-hours per day across all ABC flights. Terminal personnel are paid an

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average of $20 per hour, so this represents a waste of roughly $400 per day, or $146,000
per year." Note the footnote — in an actual problem statement, this would correspond to
a reference or appendix containing the data mentioned.

Fifth Paragraph: Propose a solution.

When you've explained what the problem is and why it's so important, proceed to
explain how you propose to deal with it. As with the initial statement of your problem,
your explanation of your solution should be written to be as clear and concise as possible.
Stick to big, important, concrete concepts and leave any minor details for later — you'll
have plenty of opportunities to get into every minor aspect of your proposed solution in
the body of your proposal.

In our airline example, our solution to the problem of inefficient boarding practices is this
new system we've discovered, so we should briefly explain the broad strokes of this new
system without getting into the minor details. We might say something like,

Example: "Using a modified boarding system proposed by Dr. Edward Right of the
Kowlard Business Efficiency Institute which has passengers aboard the plane from the
sides in rather than from the back to the front, ABC Airlines can eliminate these four
minutes of waste."

We might then go on to explain the basic gist of the new system, but we wouldn't use
more than a sentence or two to do this, as the "meat" of our analysis will be in the body
of the proposal.

Sixth Paragraph: Explain the benefits of the solution.

Again, now that you've told your readers what should be done about the problem, it's a
very good idea to explain why this solution is a good idea. Since businesses are always
trying to increase their efficiency and earn more money, you'll want to focus primarily on
the financial impact of your solution — which expenses it will reduce, which new forms of

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revenue it will generate, and so on. You can also explain non-tangible benefits, like
improved customer satisfaction, but your total explanation shouldn't be too much longer
than a few sentences to a paragraph.

In our example, we might briefly describe how our company could conceivably benefit
from the money saved with our solution. A few sentences along these lines might work:

Example: "ABC Airlines stands to benefit substantially from the adoption of this new
boarding program. For instance, the $146,000 in estimated yearly savings can be re-
directed to new sources of revenue, such as expanding its selection of flights to high-
demand markets. In addition, by being the first American airline to adopt this solution,
ABC stands to gain considerable recognition as an industry trend-setter in the areas of
value and convenience."

Seventh Paragraph: Conclude by summarizing the problem and solution.

After you've presented the ideal vision for your company, identified the problem keeping
your from achieving this ideal, and suggested a solution, you're almost done. All that's
left to do is to conclude with a summary of your main arguments that allows you
transition easily into the main body of your proposal. There's no need to make this
conclusion any longer than it needs to be — try to state, in just a few sentences, the basic
gist of what you've described in your problem statement and the approach you intend to
take in the body of the article. In our airline example, we might conclude like this:

Example: "Optimization of current boarding protocols or adoption of new, more-effective

protocols is crucial for the continued competitiveness of the company. In this proposal,
the alternative boarding protocols developed by Dr. Right are analyzed for their feasibility
and steps for effective implementation are suggested."

This sums up the main point of the problem statement — that the current boarding
procedure isn't very good and that this new one is better — and tells the audience what
to expect if they continue reading.

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In the succeeding paragraphs, there should be no indentations, paragraphs are justified
with left alignment. Delete this highlighted section and replace it with your Background
of the problem.

b. Proposed Research Project

i. General Objective

This section should state what the proponents need to do. There should be a general
objectives of the whole problem followed by the specific objectives into which the
general objective is broken up. The general objectives and specific objectives should be
formulated first before developing the software programs or prototype. Each specific
question must be clear and unambiguous. Answers to specific objectives must contribute
to the development of the whole research problem or capstone project. The number of
specific objectives should be enough to cover the whole problem or case under study.

Objectives are written by either beginning with a verb or an infinitive. Generally, there
should be a general objective and specific objectives. The General objective is the major
problem. Usually it is a one- sentence paragraph. Example:

The general aim of this study was to develop an Online Shopping System for ABC Store

ii. Specific Objectives

The specific objectives should contain a list of the specific work that the
proponents expect to address to arrive at the accomplishment of the general
objective. These are enumerated starting with number one (1). They should be
stated in logical order.
Specifically, this study aimed to do the following:

1. Develop the following Back End Modules of the system

a. Registration and Log-in Module

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 b. Dashboard View Module

c. Catalogue Module

d. Sales Module

e. System Setting Module

i. Design

ii. User

iii. Returns

iv. Backup and Restore

2. Develop the following Front End Modules of the system

a. Registration and Log-in Module

b. Products View Module

i. Product Description

ii. Price Tag

iii. Add to cart, Add to wish list, Add compare

iv. Best selling products

v. Customer’s Feedback

vi. Color, size availability

vii. Social Media sharing

c. Cart Module

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 d. Checkout Module

e. Payment Module

f. Order Confirmation Module

g. Shipment Tracking Module

iii. Scope and Limitations

This should contain the basic assumptions within which the project should work
the solution to the problem. Consequently, this should also contain the extent is
to be evaluated to be developed and the means by which the proposed system is
to be evaluated on its capability of solving the problem.

This section may be subdivided into two parts, the Scope of the study and the Limitations
of the study. The scope of the study should include a brief statement of the general
purpose of the study, the target users or beneficiaries of the study, the period of the
study and the features of the proposed software. It should contain the basic assumptions
within which the project should work the solution to the problem. Consequently, this
should also contain the extent of the prototype to be developed and the means by which
the proposed system is to be evaluated on its capability of solving the problem.

Example: “The study focused on the development of a computerized payroll system of

ABC company branch a located at Jacinto St. Davao City. It includes features that can
manipulate record such as adding, editing, saving and employee record. Furthermore,
the system is capable of updating employee information like monthly salaries, cash
advances, overtime pays, gross and net pays and the applicable mandatory salary
deductions such as SSS, PAG_IBIG, taxes and the like. The system also includes security
and backup features.

The limitations of the study include the weaknesses of the study beyond the control of

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the researcher. This section may not be included in the study if there is no such weakness
of the study beyond the control of the researcher. Delete this highlighted section and
replace it with the scope and limitations of your study.

Example: The system is delimited to operate on a single computer and does not support
online nor network implementation.

iv. Methodology of the Study

This should contain the specific approaches that may be employed by proponents in
arriving at the realization of a solution to the problem.

In developing the system, the proponents used a Rapid Application Development model
(RAD) as a method of developing the new Online Bond and Credit Purchase Processing
System. RAD is a form agile development methodology. It is a systems development life
cycle model designed to give much faster development by prototyping, iterative and
incremental development, reuse of components, and continuous integration
(Balakrishnan, 2018). James Martin developed the RAD in the late 1980s when working at
IBM based on Barry Bohem spiral model. He then published a book called Rapid
Application Development in 1991 to formalize it (Lemaignent, 2017). The methodology is
based on four main phases: (1) the proponent has to define the scope and the
requirements of the user, (2) a design prototype is then created based on the
respondent’s need, which are translated into working models, (3) the new system is
constructed, and testing involves the user to provide suggestions and improvements, (4)
the new system is implemented including user training.

III. PROJECT MANAGEMENT

a. Calendar of Activities

Description of Activities

This should contain the detailed sequence of activities that the proponents will undergo

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in completing the project.

Gantt Chart of Activities

This should contain a chart giving when each of the activities listed above are expected to
start and end. The time unit should be in terms on the week number (not actual dates)
from the start of the semester

b. Resources

Hardware

This should list the specific hardware resources that the proponents expect to need in
completing the project.

HARDWARE REQUIREMENT
Monitor 24 inches LCD
Processor/CPU Intel Core i5 (2.66 GHz, Quad Core) or
AMD FX (3.0 GHz, Octa Core) or higher
recommended
Memory (RAM) 8 GB RAM or more recommended.
Graphics AMD Radeon 6750 or NVidia 550 Ti or
higher
Hard disk space 1 TB, or 256 GB solid state drive (SSD)
Networking Hardware 10/100/1000 Ethernet adapter

Software

This should list the specific software resources that the proponents expect to need in
completing the project.

SOFTWARE REQUIREMENT

Operating System Windows 7, 32-bit, Home Premium or

higher, fully updated with firewall
enabled.

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 Microsoft Data Access Components MDAC version 2.6 or higher, required to
(MDAC) install the Microsoft .NET Framework;
also required by Microsoft SQLXML.

SQL Server 2000 Client Tools SQL Server 2000 client tools, required by
SQLXML.

Microsoft SQLXML SQLXML version 3.0 or higher.

Microsoft .NET Framework Microsoft .NET Framework version

1.0.3705 or higher.

Internet Software Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 or higher.

IV. APPENDICES

a. References

b. Resource Person/s

c. Personal Technical Vitae

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