Cash Register System Design - Coursework Example

Cash Rgister System Design Introduction A cash register system helps in easier management of the company’s activities (Gonzalez-Granat & Learning Resources, 2006). In the context of a fast food joint, the cash register enables quick conveyance of the customer’s request by the service men and ladies. Primarily, cash registers were manully operated where the waiter or waitress had to input the request onto a system and then deposit cash equivalent to the prevailing price for him or her to get an appropriate receipt. However, with the introduction of technology. It is possible request for service by pressing of a button or even through a touch screen interface. In the food case at hand, the fast food joint had a touch screen type of a system that the waiter and waitress used to convey their request to the relevant people. However, the system had operational and systematic problems as the analysis shall stipulate. Consequently, an analysis shall be conducted on the challenges associated with the system and offer alternative to such. The analysis shall serve to enlighten the reader on the various ways to solve system design related problems. Design issues of the system The system had inbuilt problems that deterred efficient operations of the fast food joint. First, the system was designed to authenticate the users with the use of passwords and username. This was a design problem owing to the need for a fast access of the service in the busy fast food joint. The need to login every time also occasioned the accumulation of grease on the screen which was detrimental. In addition, the system had an automatic lock that was poorly timed as it often locked the screen preventing any further access by the users. Moreover, the system had a challenge with the handling of complex commands especially when the users input the wrong passwords occasioning the need for a reboot. Ideally, the system should only prevent access if improper authentication codes are used but should not prompt the rebooting. Moreover, the system was designed in a way that the manager was allocated great role than the juniors but the role was more of a disturbance since he ought to be there when the system was rebooted. This is a design issue that should be streamlined to prevent time wastage and derail of service delivery. Moreover, one wonders what would happen if the manager was not there; then the business would come to a standstill. Correction of the design issues First, to prevent the users from having issues with their password, the authentication should be based on a biometric system (Jain, Flynn & Ross ,2008). In system design and implementation, every cashier or user of the system should have his or her biometric details taken hence creating a pool of database with all the users captured. In this, biometric system, the users will need to put their thumb finger on the biometric equipment that compares the details with the database created hence authenticating the user. By doing this, the user shall be relieved from clumming the user name and passwords. In addition, there will be no more sharing of the passwords by the cashiers (Jain, Nandakumar & Nagar, 2008). . In order to solve the problem of undesired logging off the cashier, the system shall be coded in a manner that after the user has made the request, it logs off the user immediately so that the subsequent users of the computer does not request using inappropriate details. To prevent the system from continuous rebooting a coding procedure should be put in place to ensure that the system only restarts at the request of the system administrator or manger. In essence, since the manual input of the log in credentials will be eliminated by the biometric system, the issue of continuous input of wrong credentials shall not arise. In case a new cashier or member of the staff joins the institution, his or her details hall is added into the system’s database. Nonetheless, the system should also provide trouble shooting mechanism by allowing the manager or the administrator to conduct cold booting of the system Incas the system fails to respond. However, this should be experienced on rare cases as the coding shall be well designed and the speed enhanced through the increase of the system memory. In concern to the automatic lock, the redesign should uphold to the automatic lock with an appropriate timing, which shall be achieved through coding. However, after the automatic lock any member of the organization should have the ability to reinstate the system back to its functions. This is realized because the biometric analysis is more secure and there is no instance that improper authentication can be realized since a comparison with the database shall be conducted by the system. The automatic lock puts the device at a safe mode that uses limited amount of energy in comparison to the active mood. In enhancing the speed of the system, a hardware upgrade ought to be conducted that will involve the addition of the computer memory (Lee et al 2007). Principally, the computer memory also known as the Random Access Memory, is responsible in enhancing the execution of commands by the system coupled with the speed of the processor. In light of this, an upgrade can be done by addition of the processor or addition of computer memory. This enhances the speed at which the commands and tasks shall be executed and the chances of system reboots due to failure to respond shall not be experienced. In concern to the interface, the screen should only contain most important functions with the coding enhancing the inbuilt features of the system. In this case, after the cashier gets an authentication from a biometric system, he or she will have to touch the screen less times by inputting the request and the system calculates the price and offers the balance while printing a receipt. Tasks associated with change of interface The interface determines the desired impression with the user by providing a system that is easy to follow and understand. About this, the following activities and tasks ought to be achieved. Acquisition of biometric equipments: The biometric equipments that are used in credential inputting need to be outsourced from reliable companies while also considering the prevailing prices. In light of this, the providers should be taken through a tendering process so that the best equipment is acquired. Acquisition of the equipments should take 2 week. Installation and configuration of the biometric system: The acquired biometric systems ought to b configured to the main system to complete functionality. In this case, the database of all the staffs have to be established ( Khan & Zhang, 2007). The IT team should ensure that proper measures and policies are followed when inputting the database to prevent any kind of compromise. Installation and configuration of biometric system should take 5 days. Designing of the flow charts and pseudo codes: Since the current system has many design challenges, a new system ought to be put in place that resolves the current issues, including the issue of interface changing. However, prior to coding, the system should be designed through a flow chart diagram and a mimic of the code functions. This helps in easier coding of the system and achievement of the desired results. This task should take 1 week. Coding: In order for the system to change the physical appearance of the screen, an inbuilt function ought to be used that will make the system to be transformed in appearance. This is achieved by alteration on the initial source code. This requires the skills of a professionl programmer. Due to the intensive nature of this task it should take a minimum of one month. Integration of images: After the new system is coded, the integration of the images to the system is very paramount. In this case, a graphic designer is therefore needed to offer images that are in line with a specific type of food. The graphic designer should understand well all the food verities that the fast food joint offers and hence make an appropriate correlation with the images. The Integration of key terms in the system’s interface: The new design shall make sure that the users interact with the touch screen for the shortest time possible in order to enhance service delivery while also preventing the accumulation of grease on the screen. This shall be made possible by the use of view terms that are key in cashiering. Conversely, in designing the new interface, the programmer should ensure that he/she uses the key terms on the interface by also enhancing the inbuilt ability of the system. In essence, the user should have an easy flow of tasks due to the improved inbuilt features of the system that also enhances the GUI(graphic user interface). This task should take approximate 5 days. Testing of the system: the system should finally be tested prior to rolling out. The testing of the system should be done by both IT experts and the staffs of the organization (Ott & Agency, 2010). First, before the system is rolled over to the users to test, the IT experts should engage in a strong testing mechanism that should be followed with the correction of the realized bug’s errors. In this case, the professionals are able to tell the root cause of a certain anomaly and offer a remedial action to counter that. After a thorough testing exercise by the IT professionals, the system shall be availed to staffs for further testing. In this case, the staffs shall test the platform by real case scenarios offered to them either daily or routinely as seen appropriate. In scenario testing every staff shall be assigned roles that he or she ought to complete with the system and produce a report on the workability of the new system. The report shall be used by the designers in determining the appropriate changes to make to the final program. Ideally, the IT team should test the system for 1 week while the staffs also test for 1 week. Challenges of incorporating security It is not very easy to create a balance between the god interface and security. However, the use of biometric system enables the security of the system to be enhanced greatly. However, the management of the security database should be enhanced by the implementation of the appropriate policies and measures. Nonetheless, it remains a challenge to maintain the security of the data where there is increased turnover of the cashiers and other workers. The management should therefore ensure that the workers in areas where significant turnover are experienced are appropriately supervised and have limited or no access to unauthorized areas. Graphical representation of the system interface References . The Hers Ott, S., & Agency, E. S. (2010) data processing system-HIPE and pipelines-up and running since the start of the mission. arXiv preprint arXiv:1011.1209. Gonzalez-Granat, O., & Learning Resources. (2006). Check-it-out: Calculator cash register activity book grades 1-3. Lincolnshire, IL: Learning Resources. Jain, A. K., Flynn, P., & Ross, A. A. (2008). Handbook of biometrics. New York: Springer. Khan, M. K., & Zhang, J. (2007). Improving the security of ‘a flexible biometrics remote user authentication scheme’. Computer Standards & Interfaces, 29(1), 82-85. Lee, Y. J., Bae, K., Lee, S. J., Park, K. R., & Kim, J. (2007). Biometric key binding: Fuzzy vault based on iris images. In Advances in Biometrics (pp. 800-808). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Nandakumar, K., Nagar, A., & Jain, A. K. (2007). Hardening fingerprint fuzzy vault using password. In Advances in biometrics (pp. 927-937). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Read More