Chapter 1:  Introduction

1.0     Background of Study

Paper has been the most common mediumof documenting information. In our university system, the use of paper-basedcommunication has created some challenges that contribute to make universityadministration expensive. These challenges include time and paper consumedduring processing of personnel files, poor storage and insecurity of the paperfiles. Paperless office is a work environment in which the use of paper iseliminated or greatly reduced. This is done by converting documents and otherpapers into digital form.

This project work presents a virtual system that enables allactivities involved in a university personnel administration to be carried outwithout paper.

 1.1  Statement of the Problem

The manualmethod in administering personnel services in a university is characterized bythe following:

• It takes days andsometimes weeks to complete the process of staff recruitment and retirement,resignation and termination of appointment, health management and pension fundsadministration schemes
• Paper files andpersonnel records easily get missing due to human negligence and poor manualstorage facilities undermine data integrity and security as well as ease ofreference.
• The amount ofstationery required for typing, printing, photocopying and circulation withinpersonnel services units attracts some overhead cost coupled with the issue ofduplication of duties among units through overlapping functions.

1.2   Objectives

Theobjectives of this project are:

1. To develop a functional software thatwould enable user to create and validate account, apply for job, view andupdate profile, apply for leave, recruit employee, issue appointment letter,record mail and manage staff records.
2. To design and implement a softwarethat is capable of storing and processing personnel data in any standarddatabase management system such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, etc.
3. To develop a software that willreduce the amount of time required for searching, processing and data retrievalto produce a timely report to management.
4. To develop a university personnelmanagement software that will enable the records and statistics unit to producea schedule summary on monthly or annual basis through the web portal.

 1.3     Significanceof the Project

Paper-based university administration is very expensive and timeconsuming. With the help of internalnetworking and database management software, personnel officers do not have towaste time searching through tons of data in paper files anymore. There ismuch better control over processes, the workflow is faster, less of paper, lesstonner for printer are being used and lesser printers are needed, feweremployee are needed, leading to a lesser overheadand budgetary cost in the overall system.

1.4    Scope of Study

This research work is on VirtualUniversity Administration. The study covers the existing structure of apaper-based university administration and personnel management system. Thestudy also covered the design and implementation of the new system and thetechnologies used in the development of the Virtual system. Finally the webdevelopment technologies used for the application.

1.5    Limitation of study

The limitations of avirtual system can be listed as follows:

1. There may be cost and temporaryproductivity losses when converting to a virtual office.
2. Electronic communication requiresboth the sender and recipient to have access to appropriate software andhardware.
3. Finding a qualified specialist withpersonnel management functional area knowledge can be difficult and costly.
4. Human error during information input.
5. Costly technology  to update system and malfunctions orinsufficient application to support personnel need.

1.6    Organizationof study

• Chapterone is an introduction and background of the study. The background provides anoverview of paper.
• Chaptertwo presents the theoretical background, review of related literatures on Personnel management and technologiesfor attaining a virtual office.
• Chapterthree discusses the methodology and system analysis that was chosen for thestudy.
• Chapterfour is the system design and implementation.
• Chapterfive summarized and concluded the virtual university administration.

1.7    Definitionof Technical Terms

Virtual is acomputer created, simulated or carried on by means of a computer or computernetwork.

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is used for transfer of documents from source to destination,retaining its original quality and format.

Hypertext markup language (HTML) is a text based programming tool used for describing thecontent of a web page, such as making a text to appear bold, capitalized,underlined and other forms of contextual definition required to make the webpage content readable to humans.

Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) is a text-based programming tool used for definition of thelayout or presentation of the content of a web page.

Asynchronous JavaScript And Extensible Markup language (AJAX) It is a web development techniqueused for construction of the search engine module

SQL(Structured Query Language) is a programming tool used to access and manipulate thedatabase

MYSQL is afreely available open source Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) thatuses Structured Query Language (SQL).

PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is widely used open sourcegeneral-purpose scripting language that is specially suited for web developmentand can be embedded into HTML

JavaScript (JS) is a dynamic computer programming language used for validation andsubmission of HTML form elements to MYSQL.

Portal is mostoften one specially-designed web page at which brings information together fromdiverse sources in a uniform way.

Web page is aweb document that is suitable for the world wide web and the web browser.

Server is acomputer in a network that stores application program and data files accessedby other computers.

PHPMYADMIN isan interface between user and database.

System Development Life Circle (SDLC) is the stage/phase involved in the development of asystem.

Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a general purpose modeling language that is use for thedesign and implementation of an application.

Methodology isthe method you intend to use to collect data.

Organogram isa diagram that explains relationship between different people in anorganization.

Flow Graph is a directed graph with a distinguished root node that can reach every vertex.