Designing a Computer Based System
General description of the task being undertaken A
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Mr. Green of Green Associates is a seller of many games, and at the
moment archives all the information about the price of each game, the
producer, and the genre using a pen and paper technique, which is to
simply write on table in columns the information. This is tiresome and
can be full of erroneous records as it is down to the human factor to
make sure all data is correct, because of this it can be unreliable,
it is not only tiresome to write all the information, but it also
extremely hard to find a certain piece of information.
The solution for this is obviously a computerized solution, which is
to create a database in Access, which would allow for easy searching
of data, and would allow for many other extra features, such as data
validation which would prevent the entry of invalid data.
Reasons for selecting the chosen approach A/B
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I have chosen to use Microsoft Access as it easily the most widespread
database software in the world, and therefore the most compatible. It
is extremely well suited for this as has many special features, in
particular, I will be making use of Access's command buttons, to
create a user friendly menu allowing the user to select different
functions with ease. I will also be implementing data entry forms
using Microsoft Access's "Forms" facility. Printing using Access is
just as easy as the user must simply click on the print symbol in the
toolbar.
Possible alternative strategy for solving the problem B
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There are many other alternate strategies for solving this problem,
for example, one could use Excel's table's and input data in a similar
approach that Mr. Green is doing know, which is to write all the names
of the other companies and their games, and prices, and update
whenever necessary. This is however much slower, harder for a user to
understand, no queries, and no graphical "forms" database.