Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Faculty of Informatics
Department of Computer Science (CEP)
Final Project
Title: ONLINE AUTOMATED ETHIOPIAN POSTAL SERVICE
By
GROUP NAME……… …………ID NO
1. Yacob Yohannes……………………………….EVCS/1206/09
2. Abraham Beyene……………………………….EVCS/005/09
3. Abduselam kasim……………………………….EVCS/198/09
Hawassa, Ethiopia
May, 2021
Advisor: Ayele S.
Contents
Abstract ................................................................................................................................................. vii
INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 1
Observation .................................................................................................................................. 3
i
2.2. Proposed System Description. ..................................................................................................... 8
SYSTEM FEATURES............................................................................................................................ 9
CHAPTER FOUR................................................................................................................................. 54
ii
CHAPTER FIVE .................................................................................................................................. 62
References ..................................................................................................................................... 63
Appendix ............................................................................................................................................... 64
Definitions ..................................................................................................................................... 64
iii
List of Figures
Figure 11. Sequence diagram for searching material information from the database ........................... 42
Figure 12. Sequence diagram for searching airmail information from the data base ........................... 43
Figure 13. Sequence diagram for searching post box information from the data base ......................... 44
Figure 14. Sequence diagram for updating post box information to the database ................................ 45
Figure 15. Sequence diagram for deleting post box from the database ................................................ 46
iv
Figure 25.Deployment diagram ............................................................................................................ 57
v
List of Tables
Table 3.The scenario or use case description of the user registration use case..................................... 17
Table 4 The scenario or use case description of the rent post box use case.......................................... 18
Table 5.The scenario or use case description of the material registration use case. ............................. 19
Table 6. The scenario or use case description of the sent airmails registration use case. ..................... 20
Table 7.The scenario or use case description of the received airmails registration use case. ............... 21
Table 8.The scenario or use case description of the search user use case............................................. 22
Table 9.The scenario or use case description of the update user use case ............................................ 23
Table 10. The scenario or use case description of the delete user use case .......................................... 24
Table 11.The scenario or use case description of the Search airmail use case ..................................... 25
Table 12.The scenario or use case description of the update airmail use case ..................................... 26
Table 13.The scenario or use case description of the delete airmail use case....................................... 27
Table 14.The scenario or use case description of the search materials use case ................................... 28
Table 15.The scenario or use case description of the update materials use case .................................. 29
Table 16.The scenario or use case description of the delete materials use case ................................... 30
Table 17.The scenario or use case description of the search post box use case.................................... 31
Table 18.The scenario or use case description of the updated post box use case ................................. 32
Table 19.The scenario or use case description of the delete post box use case .................................... 33
Table 20.The scenario or use case description of the Check_Track use case ....................................... 34
Table 21.The scenario or use case description of the Create_account use case .................................... 35
vi
Abstract
Postal service system is one of the widely used communication media in the world. Now a
day’s technology is highly accelerating throughout the world. Due to this reason
computerizing the postal service system has a lot of advantages. This project is aimed to
automate Ethiopian postal service system. The proposed system will have the capabilities to
store information about airmail transaction, update information, search information, store
information about material that stored in store room and store contact information of renting
post box.
vii
Acknowledgement
First of all we would like to thanks our God (Allah) because helps us in every success of our
work. Next to this we would like to express deepest gratitude to our advisor Ayele S. for his
excellent advice and passionate guidance throughout this project. Finally we would also like
to thanks our team members for our contribution and shared ideas for the successful
completion of the project. We also thank our department as well as the project coordinator of
viii
CHAPTER ONE:
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of the Study
The origin of postal service dates back to the middle Ages and was developed from the medieval
system of royal messengers whom employed to carry government documents from one place to
another. In most countries, the postal service developed in the 18th century when different means of
transport such as mules, horses, camels and stage-caches were used to carry mail. In some Middle-
Eastern countries even falcons were specially trained to carry written messages from one place to
another. The first railway mails were carried in Europe in 1830. The establishment of the Universal
Postal Union (UPU) in 1875 is what greatly promoted international mail services. Prior to the
establishment of the postal service in Ethiopia on March 9, 1894 following an imperial edict,
correspondence was conducted through messengers known as „melektegnas or postegnas‟. These
tough individuals travelled great distances, often on foot, overcoming rough landscape and weathering
hostile climate. They endured the pangs of hunger and thirst and carried their letters over their heads,
on cleft sticks (which later became the symbol of the post office still today) until they reached their
destination. Ethiopian Postal Service was established nearly two decades after the birth of UPU. The
second half of the 19th century in Ethiopia was characterized by the establishment and consolidation
of the empire state under the protection of Emperor Menelik. Menelik found in the postal service, like
the telephone and the telegraph, a vital means of exchanging information, first for political and
administrative purposes and later on for public correspondence [7].
The construction of the Djibouti - Addis Ababa train made it possible for letters, parcels and
merchandise, which were previously transported on camel back. This was a crucial factor that greatly
improved the pace and efficiency of the postal service while it laid the basis for the international
exchange of mail. Then Ethiopia became a member of the Universal Postal Union in 1908.
Ethiopia has at present over 1,200 post offices. Out of this 1,016 Permanent post offices,130
Departmental sub-post offices, 261 Sub-post offices and 2 Visiting postmen in rural areas and over
170000 post boxes. It is estimated that one post office is serving 79,116 inhabitants while In the result
of opportunities and challenges, Ethiopian postal service establishes EMS (express mail service) in
1989. The introduction of EMS has made the Ethiopian Postal Service competitive in the express
delivery market. Today Ethiopian postal service is under the implementation of business process
1
reengineering (BPR), which had been study for 18 months. Due to this the structure become process
and customer oriented. The managers and the employees are doing their best to accomplish the needs
of their customers. while one private box serves 558 people [7].
In fact, Ethiopian postal service is one of the most crucial as well as backbone of the people by giving
postal related services as well as any other services which can be transfer through postal system, still
the system generally does follow or perform the manual system or paper based system and somewhat
automated to provide service to its customers. So that using manual system has a lot of problems in
many cases.
Moreover, the following are problems that are present in the current system of postal service
system in general. Because of this reason the organization faced to many problems. The problems are:-
Work load of the Employers is very high means takes much time to perform simple tasks.
Takes time to retrieve data means it has spent of time to get necessary data from stored data.
Difficult to update data means its very hard to modify past data.
Wastage of resources (like cabinet, paper…etc.
Loss of data and poor organized and unsecured data. This also leads to Security problem not
protect the data from an unauthorized person and doesn‟t keep the organization‟s safety.
Date or time limitation problem in which the system doesn‟t keep track of sending and
receiving different materials deliver in the customer‟s expected time and date. Example,
postponing the expected time or date.
N.B: The problems that raised in the above limit the organization not to give reliable and fast service
to its customers.
2
To design central and well-structured database management system.
To eliminate redundancy of data.
To develop web based application through an internet connection.
To makes fast searching and give information about Postal service.
To indicate the address of the Postal Office through an internet connection.
Scope of this project means the boundary that we are performing tasks in this project. The proposed
system that we will try to automate is limited and bounded on the Ethiopian postal services. It will
Track management that checks the sent messages of customers through their user account.
Rent post box services.
Employee management.
Store data in data base.
Mail management.
There are many factors that limited us to minimize our scope, such as time limitation, resource,
place, and complexity of the system. In general our proposed system is limited to perform the
Paying pension.
Forming DV lottery.
Selling SIM cards, CDMA/WCDMA, mobile cards.
Western Union services.
1.6. Methodology
Observation
By observing the current working environment of Hawassa post office, we collect data which
necessary for automating of Hawassa postal service system. In our observation we have tried to
3
A type of document format is there printed or non-printed.
Here for the analysis of our project we have selected object oriented system analysis and design
method specifically UML (Unified Modeling Language) model. We have selected this because of the
following advantages:-
To simplify the design and implementation of complex program.
To make it easier for teams of designers and programmers to work in a single software project.
component through programming. there are different types of tools available to implement the system
from those tools we select php to develop front end of the system, Wamp2.5 server to develop back
end of the system ,UML editor to sketch different UML diagrams and Microsoft word 2010 to prepare
Testing methodologies are approaches to testing, from unit testing through system testing and beyond.
There is no formally recognized body of testing methodologies, and very rarely will you ever find a
Unit testing: The act of testing software at the most basic (object) level. Generally performed by
developers, run in "friend classes" with code-level access to read and manipulate objects.
System testing: Testing the project as a collective system. System testing generally combines multiple
4
1.6.5. Development Environment
The development method we are using to develop the proposed system is the Waterfall approach.
Waterfall Methodology: All projects can be managed better when segmented into a hierarchy of
The tools that we are going to use throughout our project are listed in the following table as grouped
Tools
Hardware Software
5
CHAPTER TWO
DESCRIPTIONS OF EXSTING SYSTEM
automated to provide service to its customers. The services provided by the system are:-
Paying pension
Forming of DV lottery
Registered airmail
EMS
Parcel airmail
a. Sending airmail
On the process of sending airmail if a customer want to send an airmail, first she/he contact the
counter, then he/she must select the types of airmail, the counter receives the airmail to check whether
the address of both sender and receiver are valid or not .Second, the counter measures the weight of
the airmail, attach postage stamp and record the information available on airmail (date of sending,
registration no, sender address, receiver address, weight, barcode number(for EMS air mail), cost and
price) in three copies on the form. Finally the customer pays the price and receives the receipt. Then
6
the counter starts to collect daily received airmails and group together according to their destination,
then packed and gives to the messenger/postman. The messenger/postman takes the packed airmails to
the bus station and distribute to different expected sites of the customers.
b. Receiving airmail.
Every day the messenger/postman brings the packed airmails from the bus station and gives to the
counter. The counter registers all received airmails. Then, if the airmail is ordinary or first order
airmail the counter distribute it to the post box of a customer .But type of airmail is either registered or
parcel, the counter distribute registered letter 1st advice form (if the customer received a single
airmail) or collective 1st advice form (if the customer has more than one received letter).
For EMS the messenger/postman directly contact the customer and gives the airmail.
The customer fills contract renting post box form and pay 48 birr for a single post box and 20 birr for
key. Then the counter records the information of the customer.
The counter receive a Fax message about the receiver information, sender address ,amount of money
and date of sending .Then ,by recording the above information she/he pay the money sent to the
receiver.
The counter pay the pension for customers according to the list comes from Ethiopia Finance Minister
by recording all necessary personal information such as name, address, status, phone No, etc.
v. Forming of DV lottery
The customers who want to apply DV lottery of a year through postal system fill the form by fulfilling
all requirements. The counter collects and registers all DV lottery forms.
The counter sells SIM card to different customers by registering their personal information such as
name, id. Number, address, phone number, PIN code and PUK code of the sold SIM card.
7
2.2. Proposed System Description.
In fact, postal service is one of the most crucial as well as backbone of the people by giving postal
related services as well as any other services which can be transfer through postal system,
still the system generally does follow or perform the manual system or paper based system. So that
using manual system has a lot of problems in many cases.
We have selected this postal service system, because there are a lot of problem in the postal system
Working overtime.
Use more human power: - since the system is not some more computerized it use more human
There is duplication of data:-because of the data are not well organized and structured.
There is disorder of data: - because the data are not stored sequentially.
8
CHAPTER THREE
SYSTEM FEATURES
3.1. Introduction
As we mentioned in the above section, in this project, the team members used an object oriented
system development methodology which incorporates principal phases. In this chapter, what the team
will do is the object oriented analysis (OOA).
The analysis of an information system produces the details that clearly describe how a system will
meet the requirements identified during earlier steps. Model is an abstraction of the real world. It
allows us to deal with the complexity current in a real-world problem by focusing on the essential and
interesting features of an application. The techniques and associated notation used for object oriented
analysis and design in incorporated in to a standard object – oriented language called Unify Modeling
language (UML). An important goal of requirement modeling is come to an understanding of the
problem that the new system is to address. This chapter focuses on developing the requirement and
analysis models for the new system using the UML class responsibility and use case model, activity
diagram, Sequence Diagram, Class diagram and . User Interface Design.
Functional requirements describe the interactions between the system and its Environment
independent of its implementation. The environment includes the user and any other external system
with which the system interacts. The system should provide how the system should react to particular
User management
The system verify user account to login in to the system by checking their information
Mail management
The system provides data manipulation service such as insertion, updating and deletion
9
The system enable users to search data
Customers can write comments, suggestions, questions, and thanks on the online service of the
system.
Non-functional requirements describe user-visible aspects of the system that are not directly related
with the functional behavior of the system. Nonfunctional requirements include quantitative
constraints, such as response time (i.e., how fast the system reacts to user commands) or accuracy (i.e.,
how precise are the system‟s numerical answers). The nonfunctional requirements of our system will
Robustness: - the system should be robust while validating data during data entry. It also ability to
Security: - the system should be secured and protected from unauthorized user. It should have a
user‟s database and should authenticate each user on login and should grant user specific services.
Performance: - System will have good performance as much as possible this will be attained via
easily loadable interface components and optimal algorithms which make searching, updating,
Error handling mechanism: - the system must have error handling mechanism. It is not stop
Documentation:-the system will provide the system description document for the client.
10
3.4. Analysis Models
Use case diagrams for the proposed system are used to represent the basic functionalities of the system
as Use cases focus on the behavior of the system from an external point of view. It also represents user
requirements gathered during requirement elicitation, contains use case, actors, system boundary and
their relationships.
Use-case modeling
Use-case model consists of the collection of all actors and all use case, a use case is a scenario that
describes the use of the system by an actor to accomplish a specific goals, an actor is a user playing a
role with respect to the system. Scenario is a sequence of step that describes the interaction between an
Use cases
Actors
Administrator
Counter
Postman
Customers
Actors Specification
Administrator: is a person who registers user, update and delete information about the user.
11
Counter: is a person who register, update and delete sent and received airmails and rent post box
information.
Postman: is a person who sends and receives airmails as well as materials to and from customers
respectively. Also who can register, update, search and delete materials in the system.
Customers: are people or any users who can send and receive whatever their materials using the
Use Case diagram of our system is shown as follows with respective description.
12
Figure 2.Use case diagram for counter
13
Figure 3.Use case diagram for system Postman
14
Figure 4.Use case diagram for Customers
15
Use case Description and Scenario
UC Name Login
Post condition The user entered to the system and can access the system.
16
Table 3.The scenario or use case description of the user registration use case
Actor Administrator
17
Table 4 The scenario or use case description of the rent post box use case
Actor Counter
Alternative course of A1: The post box was rented by other user.
action 1. The system displays “The post box was rented by another
user!” message.
2. The system resumes at step 2.
18
Table 5.The scenario or use case description of the material registration use case.
Precondition The counter and postman should have logged into the system
19
Table 6. The scenario or use case description of the sent airmails registration use case.
Actor Counter
20
Table 7.The scenario or use case description of the received airmails registration use case.
Actor Counter
21
Table 8.The scenario or use case description of the search user use case.
Actor Administrator
22
Table 9.The scenario or use case description of the update user use case
Actor Administrator
23
Table 10. The scenario or use case description of the delete user use case
Actor Administrator
24
Table 11.The scenario or use case description of the Search airmail use case
UC Description Allow counter to search or view user data from the database.
Actor Counter
25
Table 12.The scenario or use case description of the update airmail use case
UC Description Allow counter to update or change user data from the database.
Actor Counter
26
Table 13.The scenario or use case description of the delete airmail use case
UC Description Allow counter to update or change user data from the database.
Actor Counter
27
Table 14.The scenario or use case description of the search materials use case
Actor Postman
28
Table 15.The scenario or use case description of the update materials use case
Actor Postman
29
Table 16.The scenario or use case description of the delete materials use case
Actor Postman
30
Table 17.The scenario or use case description of the search post box use case
UC Description Allow counter to search or view post box data from the
database.
Actor Counter
31
Table 18.The scenario or use case description of the updated post box use case
UC Description Allow counter to update or change post box data from the
database.
Actor Counter
32
Table 19.The scenario or use case description of the delete post box use case
UC Description Allow counter to delete or remove post box data from the
database.
Actor Counter
33
Table 20.The scenario or use case description of the Check_Track use case
UC Name Check_Track
Actor Customers
Post condition The user entered to the system and can check the material
where it reaches through tracking the system.
34
Table 21.The scenario or use case description of the Create_account use case
UC Name Create_account
UC Description Enables all customers to create their account and then they can
have full information about their materials and airmails through
tracking with which where it reach. Generally, they will be a
user member of post office of Ethiopia.
Actor Customers
35
3.4.2. Sequence Diagram
Sequence diagram is a system model that is used to depict the interaction between participating
objects in a given use case. The sequence diagrams for automated postal service system is clearly
36
Figure 6. Sequence diagram for user registration
37
Figure 7. Sequence diagram for renting post box
38
Figure 8. Sequence diagram for material registration
39
Figure 9. Sequence diagram for sent airmail registration
40
Figure 10. Sequence diagram for received airmail registration
41
Figure 11. Sequence diagram for searching material information from the database
42
Figure 12. Sequence diagram for searching airmail information from the data base
43
Figure 13. Sequence diagram for searching post box information from the data base
44
Figure 14. Sequence diagram for updating post box information to the database
45
Figure 15. Sequence diagram for deleting post box from the database
46
Figure 16. Sequence diagram for create account
47
Figure 17. Sequence diagram for Check_Track
48
3.4.3. Activity Diagram
An activity diagram describes a system in terms of activities. Activities are states that represent the
execution of a set of operations. The completion of these operations triggers a transition to another
activity. Activity diagrams are also similar to flowchart diagrams in that they can be used to
represent control flow (i.e., the order in which operations occur) and data flow (i.e., the objects that
49
Figure 19. Activity diagram for counter
50
Figure 20. Activity diagram for Postman
51
Figure 21. Activity diagram for Customers
52
3.4.4. Class diagram
Class diagram describe the structure of the system in terms of classes and objects .Classes are
abstractions that specify the attributes and behavior of a set of objects whereas objects are entities
that encapsulate state and behavior. In our system account, airmail, material, user, customer, and
postbox are classes. The class diagram for automated Ethiopian postal service system as shown
below.
53
CHAPTER FOUR
SYSTEM DESIGN
4.1. Introduction
The overview of the system design document is the transformation of analysis model into design
model according to its function and user interfaces. During design model the system defines the goal
and decomposes the system into subsystems.
Generally throughout this system design the system performs the following tasks to make the system
effective and well designed to the clients; the hardware or software platform, on which the system
will run, the persistent data management strategy, the global control flow, the access control policy
Finally, as the result of above mentioned details the system operates its task as follows:
Subsystem decomposition.
system
The purpose of this system design document is to describe the architecture and system design of the
project Online Ethiopian Postal Service. This document helps both the system developers and the
customers by providing detail information on the most important activities which are going to be
implemented. It can also be used as a blue print for the developers before they start construction.
54
4.3. Architectural Design of the System
55
4.3.2. Process View
It describes the tasks (procedures and threads) involved in the system„s execution, their interactions
and configurations. It also describes the allocation of objects and classes to tasks .Describe the
processes within your system. It is particularly helpful when visualizing what must happen within
your system. This view typically contains activity diagrams.
56
4.3.3. Deployment View
Deployment modeling is used to show the hardware of the system, the software that is installed in
the hardware and also the middleware that is used to connect the disparate machines to one and
other. It also shows how the software and the hardware components work together in order perform
the task.
57
4.4. Database Design
Database Design is the database structure that will be used as plan to Store and manage the data.
Database se design is the process of producing a detailed data model of a database. This logical data
model contains all the needed logical and physical design choices and physical storage parameters
needed to generate a design in a Data Definition Language, which can then be used to create a
database. Much thought, as data and reporting requirements become more complex, those same
people will simply and produce the required data by incorrectly adding more columns of tables to the
database.
58
4.4.1. Database Normalization
Normalization is the process of organizing data into tables in such a way that the results of using
the database are always unambiguous and as intended. Normalization may have the effect of
duplicating data within the database and often results in the creation of additional tables.
Airmails (3NF)
Register_no Date of Sender Receiver city type Data of
posting name name receiving
Customer (3NF)
Fname Lname Age Sex C_id position Email Phone_no POBox
Material (3NF)
Register_no Type Quality quantity weight Customer_id
Counter (3NF)
Fname Lname Age Sex Id City salary POBox position address
Postbox (3NF)
Fname Lname Register_no City Phone_no Renting Expired House_no
date date
Postman (3HF)
Fname Lname Age Sex Phone_no address salary position id
designed to match the skills, experience and expectations of its anticipated users. System users often
judge a system by its interface rather than its functionality. A poorly designed interface can cause a
Our system user interfaces contribute to a system's quality in the following ways:
59
Increased efficiency: If our system fits the way its users work and if it has a good design,
users can perform their tasks efficiently. They do not lose time struggling with the
Improved productivity: Our system user interface does not distract the user, but rather
Reduced Errors: These so-called 'customers errors' can be attributed to poor user interface
Reduced Training: A well-designed user interface encourages its users to create proper
Such systems make information easy to find and provide the information in a form which is
easy to use.
60
B. User Interface: Counter Login page interface
61
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
1.1. Conclusion
In this project, we have developed an Online Automated Ethiopian Postal Service that facilitates
various event activities of user. We began our work by identifying the significance of automated
system for the store and the overall techniques to be used in the development process. This involved
defining the system development methodology, identifying process, and setting the deliverable and
scheduled for the project.
The business area Analysis helps the team to truly understand the major functional areas and
processes of the system. Through this we evaluate the existing system weakness and strength.
After that, we performed requirements elicitation to discover user and system requirements. This
phase consisted of drawing the functional as well as non-functional requirements of the system.
Then we have undertaken a major phase in system development process: object oriented Analysis.
Here, we tried to model the new system we proposed using UML diagrams: Use case, sequence, and
activity and class diagrams. Also we designed the new system user interface prototype.
1.2. Recommendation
According to scope of our project the team develops an Online Automated Ethiopian Postal Service
System. Because of the time constraint we have some limitations which should be taken in
considerations, but in the future the team believes that this system can be fully operational by having
some functionality that are not included in the proposed system like user view current location and
appointment place by using global positioning system Tracker.
62
References
1. “Object-Oriented Systems Analysis and Design, (2nd Edition)” by Joey F. George, Dinesh Batra,
2. .“Object-oriented Systems Analysis and Design Using UML “by Simon Bennett, Steve McRobb,
3. “Object-Oriented Systems Analysis and Design with UML “by Robert V. Stumpf and Lavette C.
Teague.
5. “Principles of Object-Oriented Analysis and Design “by James Martin and James J. Odell.
63
Appendix
Definitions
64