DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A CAR RENTAL SYSTEM
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.0
Brief
introduction to Car Rental System
CAR RENTAL
SYSTEM (CRS) is a web based system for a company that rents out cars. This
system enables the company to make their services available to the public
through the internet and also keep records about their services.
The world has become a place where there is a
lot of technological development; where every single thing done physically has
been transformed into computerized form. Nowadays, people’s activities have
been transformed into work done by computerized systems. One of which is the
main target of this project which is about Car Rental System. The system of
renting cars exist back in the previous years, were people rent cars for their
personal reasons. Car renting is essential to many peoples’ plan to travel or
move from one place to another for business purposes, tour, and visit or
holidays, for these reasons Car renting is very helpful.
The [8] starting
point of Car renting is really unknown as said by Thomas Pretty; he also
mentioned that many beliefs that Joe Saunders was the first man to start a Car
renting company. According to Thomas Pretty, charges were calculated with the
help of mileage tracking device. Many people became interested in the Car
rental business and hence got involved. Car renting became more popular as
years pass by. Today Car renting services is found all over the world,
especially in the developed and developing countries. To make this service more
popular and accessible to the public it has been transform into a web base
system and connected to the internet were everyone can be able to have access
to it.
1.1
Objectives
The main
objectives of this project are:
·
To develop a web based
system that will help manage the business transactions of car renting.
·
To help in advertising
the car rental services of a company, through the availability of the system
online.
1.2
Scope
The scope of
this project is as follows:
·
The car rental system
to keep detail records of both the cars and the customers, the duration they rent
car as well as the type of car they rent.
·
The system will be
mainly design for small a company that renders it car rental services to
customers.
·
The system will have
the ability to generate and print invoice for each successful transaction.
Level
of Access:
The system will have two levels of access:
·
The administrator
·
Customer
1.3
Problem
Statement
The problem with
some of the current system is that:
·
Based on observations,
some small companies already have a car rental system which is not a web based application.
This is a limitation that gives them capability to store customer’s details,
but at the same time they cannot make their services more available to the
public through the internet, they rather make use of posters to advertise their
services to the public. These types of companies can overcome these problems by
switching to the web base application of their type of system.
·
They also make use of
phone call reservations which is also limited to many features as compare to a
web base system. For example a customer may make a phone call reservation for a
particular car, but when he/she comes to pick the car, he/she might turn not to
like the car; this could be because the customer could not see a sample picture
of the car he/she wants to rent
1.4
Methodology
The Iterative
Waterfall Model is the development methodology that will be used in this
project to develop the CRS. This [1] [2] [18] Model is derived from the
evolution of the Traditional Waterfall Model. It consist of five phases, which
include; the Requirement and Definition, System and Software Design,
Implementation and testing, System testing, Operation and maintenance. Each of
these phase is repeated if an error is discover, this enables the correction of
errors before moving to the next phase. The Figure 1.1 below represents the
Iterative Waterfall Model for this project, and each of the phases is explain
accordingly.
(http://www.dimacleod.co.uk/msc/thesis267.htm,
2014)
Figure
1.1: Iterative Water Fall Model
1.4.1 Requirement
analysis and definition
The
system’s services, constraints and goals are established by consultation with
system users. Once these have been agreed, they must be defined in a manner
which is understandable by users and development team. For example project
scope, objectives.
1.4.2 System
and software design
Using
the requirement definition as a foundation, the requirements are divided into
software and hardware. This is called system design. Software design is the
process of representing the functions of each software system in a manner which
may readily be transformed to one or more computer programs. Use case diagrams,
class diagrams, sequence diagrams, entity relationship diagrams (ERD) and data
dictionary are use at this level to represent the system design.
1.4.3 Implementation
and unit testing
During
this stage, the software design is released as a set of programs. Unit testing
involves verifying that each unit is working according to the specification of
the customer.
1.4.4 System
testing
The
individual programs or units are integrated and tested as a complete system to
ensure that the software requirements have been met as specified by the end
users. After testing has been completed, the software system is delivered to
the customer.
1.4.5 Operation
and maintenance
This
is the longest life cycle phase. The system is installed and put into practical
use. Maintenance involves correcting errors which were not discovered in the
earlier stages of the life cycle. The software must be adapted to accommodate
changes in its external environment. For example, a change required because of
a new operating system or peripheral device, or because the customer requires
functional or performance enhancement.
1.4.6 Feedback
During use, errors and omissions in the original
software requirements are discovered, program and design errors come to light
and the need for new functionality is identified.
1.5
Software
development tools
The project will
make use of the tools:
·
The programming
language to use will be PHP.
·
A personal computer or
laptop as hardware requirement.
·
Microsoft 2003/2007
will be used for project documentation.
·
MySQL and wamp server
will be used for the development of the database
1.6
Conclusions
1.6.1
Problem restatement
Based on the research
done, some car rental companies still use desktop application for their car
rental services and thus making it to be limited to so many important feature
that are not available unlike in the web based application where there are so
many feature available. Also some upcoming companies do not only make use of
these desktop applications, but also make use of phone call reservation, which
is still lacking so many features that are needed for this type of system.
1.6.2
Recommendations
The most
recommended solution to these problems is to implement a web based system that will
have the features required for this kind of services or business.
In conclusion, the
system will be able to serve as a web base application when it is finally
developed, where these small upcoming companies can make use of it to publish
their services in a wide range and also help the company to manage their
service more effectively. On the other hand, it will enable customers to freely
make their desire choice more freely and interactively.