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Chapter I

INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Enrolment serves as a vital part in the life of every student upon
entering college or universities, either public or in private. It gives
students the impression on how the whole institution manages and
manipulates the entire body. Enrolment is considered as the first step or
procedure that must be done by a student within a particular institution
before the semester per school year totally starts. Good enrolment is
always an asset in a college or university, pertaining to fast payment,
assessment procedures, and easy transactions with a high rate of
accuracy. Therefore, good enrolment within the college or university, if
present, can be described as civilize, organize, accurate and professional
(Ting, 2010).
Moreover, to ensure a good studying experience in the college, an
organized schedule must take into consideration.
Course/Subject scheduling is considered to be an integral part of
an

educational

institution

or

in

the

enrollment

process.

Also,

course/subject scheduling plays a vital role in controlling the flow of

timetable that the students will follow during a given term. It acts as a
traffic enforcer so that students wont have contradicting or opposing
subject schedules and it help in maximizing the use of s12chool facilities
and rooms everyday while avoiding conflict of schedules (jybrielle, 2012).

Where are these? * Computerization/Automation of scheduling *


International experiences on automation * Local literature on automation of
schedules.

The Administrative Sciences (AS) Department of the Naval


Postgraduate School (NPS) Monterey, California has a very large
database, containing information regarding faculty activity in the areas of
course instruction; thesis development, ongoing research, and academic
service. Management of this information was disjointed and required
considerable time and energy, and could be more efficiently handled with
a software application. Subsequently, the choice was made to develop a
database application that effectively manages these facets

PIMSAT Colleges Inc., formerly Philippine Institute of Maritime


Studies and Technology, is an educational institution operating since
1963 and is before situated in Labrador, now has its main branch at

McArthur Highway, Bolosan District, Dagupan City, Pangasinan. This


school was founded Atty. Rebene C. Carrera, Ph.D., with the dream and
ambition of his late wife Ma. Lourdes A. Carrera, also with the assistance
of people with dedication to serve in the field of education. Now has its
branches at San Carlos City, Pangasinan, and at Imus, Cavite. At
present, it employs 180 employees and 98 of them serve as faculty.

In the early 90s, PIMSAT Colleges handles not more than 100 students enrolled
at Maritime and other allied courses offered by the college. In the succeeding years,
rapid growth of student enrolled with more Programs offered by the
college. Currently, PIMSAT Colleges class scheduling is done manually
which includes activities such as organizing and planning the schedule
for the faculty member workload and the sections that they will instruct,
and also the schedule for each section in all the subjects and its
preferred timeslot. All these resources must be efficiently and wisely
matched for best utilization.

The

conflicts

that

the

Deans/Department

Heads

normally

encounters: Room deficiency, time and schedule conflicts, teacher

schedule with 1,500 students enrolled in different courses, majority at


Maritime Education.
It is a fact that a manuals scheduling process is indeed a little laborious since
more time and labor force is required to plot, arrange and revise the class schedules, room
utilization and instructors load provided by the Department Heads. Without well
organized time management, classes are delayed and there are a greater number of
students in a class. There is a possibility that an instructor will conflict to other instructor
schedules.
With these problems, the Researcher had come up with an idea of creating an
Automated Course Scheduler using MySQL database and PHP Programming Language.
Through this advancement, its easy to arrange class schedules, instructors load and
room utilization for the students and faculty in every department. It will also lessen the
hassles and errors that a manual scheduler system creates during enrollment.
Conceptual Framework
Please follow these guidelines for the Conceptual Framework.
Four paragraphs: 1 for the intro on the use of IPO as framework, 1
for the input, 1 for the process and 1 for the output. This will be followed
by the Research Paradigm figure (occupies 1 whole page, landscape).
o

Discuss the IPO.

Input includes the items in your SOO.

Process involves the SDLC to use. State the SDLC, its phases,

and explain briefly why suitable in the study conducted.


o

Output is the system.

The diagram: input is a rectangle then there a simple line

connecting to the process which is enclosed in an oblong. There is an


arrow connecting the process to another rectangle which is the output.
Feedbacks from the output are represented in broken lines to which arrows
points to the input and process.
This process is a very large, complex, and time consuming task
with many inputs to take into consideration. The quality of the output
has an immense impact on students, faculty, and the department as a
whole.
As inputs, research and interview about the manual approach in
managing course schedule were used. It takes various input like details
of student, subjects, classrooms and teachers available.
Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is the most common

Existing

process
adopted to develop a project and not surprisingly, this project
Manual

Process

PIMSAT ACS

will follow this model too. To be precise, waterfall model is being applied.

Specifically in:
Scheduling

Planning

Designin
Testing

Analyzing

Coding

Figure 1
Research Paradigm of
PIMSAT Automated Course Scheduler
(PIMSAT ACS)

Statement of the Objectives


The general objective in developing the system is to design and
create an Automated Course Scheduler for PIMSAT Colleges to ensure a

fast and reliable scheduling of classes, and the avoidance of conflicts in


the schedule. Specifically, the following are the objectives of the study:
1. To identify the processes involved in the existing scheduling at
PIMSAT Colleges in terms of:
a. Class schedule;
b. Room schedule; and
c. Faculty load;
2. To determine the functional and non-functional requirements of
the system;
3. To enumerate the hardware and software requirements of the
system; and
4. To test the acceptability of the developed system.
Significance of the Study
Class Schedule provides the when, where, who (days and times,
classroom location, instructor) for the courses designated to be offered in
a

given

quarter.

To

facilitate

students

program

planning,

class

scheduling for all Semesters of the academic year is completed prior to


the opening of enrollment.

PIMSAT Automated Course Scheduler system facilitates scheduling


by enabling the lecturers schedules to make their records complete and
up-to-date as possible and as easily accessible for verification. Data
provided by this system in the form of comprehensive reports are
invaluable for planning, program implementation and related purposes.
PIMSAT Colleges. PIMSAT Colleges current process is a purely
manual process that incorporates some preferences for assignment and
attempts to avoid conflicts for scheduling. Due to the complexity of the
problem, this manual process is prone to error and is extremely time
consuming. With a manual approach as the base line, there is a great
deal of room for improvement.
ACS provides PIMSAT Colleges scheduling model formulation to
schedule each section to a feasible time slot that doesnt conflict with
other time slots assigned to the same faculty member, same room, or
same conflict zone while minimizing preference values in order to
generate a schedule that is desirable.
Dean / Program Heads. The ACS allows automation of classroom
spaces assignments to match timetables; when necessary will be able to

use software to find rooms outside their own faculty to accommodate


needs and requirements.
Registrars Office / Staff. The ACS provides copy or printed class
schedule during enrollment process.
Faculty Members. The ACS allows all Instructors to have a
teaching space that meets their necessary requirements, and may have
access to rooms they have not accessed in the past.
Physical

Plant

Custodians.

The

ACS

provides

better

management of schedule for room changes and maintenance that


provides ease and access in performing their jobs.
Students. The ACS provides copy or printed class schedule during
enrollment process. Students will be able to fix their schedules according
to the availability of the subject they prefer to enroll.
SCOPE AND LIMITATION
The study focuses on the development of the PIMSAT Automated
Course Scheduler (ACS). The system involves the process of Scheduling of
Class Module; generating of Schedule, Faculty Load, Room Assignment,
and Time Allotment; it also includes Editing of Schedule; Room
Availability Search Engine; Faculty Profile; Curriculum; Data Archives;

Login Module; User Access Levels; Report Generation for Class Schedule,
Instructor's Schedule, and Room Loading Schedule.
The system will only cover the automation of the scheduling
process being implemented by PIMSAT Colleges and will end at the
generation of its corresponding reports. The system will also not include
a direct connection to Internet for the uploading of the generated
schedule to be used for the enrollment process as the developers are not
permitted to access or modify it.

DEFINITION OF TERMS
To have better understanding of the terms used in this context, the
following terminologies are defined:
Academic Load refers to the number of classes or hours spent in
class a person (Faculty Member and Student) takes / has.
Automate a general technology term used to describe any
process of performing a task through the use of computers
and

computer

intervention.

software

that

requires

less

human

Course a program of instruction, with prescribed number of


classes in a particular field of study.
Curriculum refers to the lessons and academic content taught in
a school or in a specific course or program.
Dean or Program Head person in charge of the administration in
the college, or faculty. He is responsible in the distribution of
subjects / courses to be handled by his Faculty Members.
Functional Requirements is the product capabilities, or things
that a product must do for its users. It defines how software
behaves to meet user needs.
Non-functional Requirements is the quality attributes, design
and implementation constraints, and external interfaces
which a product must have. This may be captured as
narrative statements, formatted templates, or acceptance
criteria.
Scheduler a computer program designed to aid in scheduling
tasks or arranges jobs to be done by the computer in an
appropriate order.

Chapter 2
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
CHAP 2 (Follow these guidelines)
Present only related LITERATURES [to the specific subtopic] from
books, journals, internet articles and white papers from the internet. There
should be NO numberings or bulleted formats; all are presented in
paragraphs. Subtitles include:
Processes Involved in the Traditional Scheduling Systems
Class

Schedule.

__________________________________________________
________________________________________
Room Schedule. __________________________________________________
________________________________________
Faculty Load. ___________________________________________________
________________________________________
Functional and Non-functional Requirements of an Automated Scheduling
System
Hardware and Software Requirements of an Automated Scheduling
System

Acceptability of an Automated Scheduling System


At the end of each subtitle, include a 1-paragraph synthesis. The
synthesis will state the connection of the literatures presented to the study
being conducted.
In Recent developments in practical course scheduling by Carter
and Laporte (1998) the authors categorize course scheduling approaches
into 4 categories. Global algorithms include integer linear programming
(ILP), network flow formulations, and goal programming. ILP is often used
on small size problems or with decomposition techniques to solve by
means of standard ILP solver package. Constructive Heuristics include
constraint logic programming (CLP), incomplete branch and bound, and
the

simplest

heuristic

of

making

sequential

assignments

while

maintaining feasibility until 6 this is no longer possible. Improvement


Heuristics improve upon a feasible solution and techniques include
simulated annealing (SA), tabu search (TS), evolutionary or genetic
algorithms (GA). Interactive Systems include interactive procedures to
produce families of solutions under different constraints or preference
weights.

In A comparison of Course Scheduling Methods by Ojha and


Walker (2000) the authors categorize and compare four types of
methodologies for solving course scheduling problems. They conclude
that Greedy algorithms are flexible and efficient but their results are
quite poor. Hill Climbing is flexible and gives better numerical results but
takes more processing time to complete. Tabu Search is flexible and
produced the best results efficiently. They were unable to use Linear
Programming (LP) on a real set of data, but report that it is capable of
generating very good results based on a toy set of data. LP however is not
very flexible, is difficult for non-experts, and requires commercial solvers
for large problems.
Process Involved in the Traditional Course Scheduling System
The current process in every department at PIMSAT Colleges in
assigning courses to faculty members is a manual technique. The
department scheduler looks at the courses that are going to be offered
during a particular quarter and has a list of faculty who typically teach
each course. There are a few assignments that are the same every year
and those are typically done first. Next other courses are placed
manually based on historical assignments and the scheduler experience

with faculty preference. During the process Workload Teaching Units that
are assigned to each faculty are tracked manually to ensure each faculty
load has an acceptable load. If there isnt any of the typical faculty
available to teach a course then the scheduler refers to the preference
matrix to look for an alternate option. This situation often occurs when a
faculty member goes on sabbatical or other type of leave. Sometimes it is
can be a challenge to shift courses around so that the assignment is
acceptable.
Once the assignment is complete, the scheduler reviews the WTU
and manually inputs the schedule into a spreadsheet to create a WTU
and assignment report to review with chair and faculty members. If any
changes are necessary, the scheduler shifts assignments around until an
acceptable assignment is agreed upon.
One downside of this manual approach is that since it is a manual
process, it is potentially susceptible to human error and unbalanced
preferences. Often the assignment is not created to maximize and
balance preferences across the department. Because it is difficult to
manually maximize total preference for the department sometimes the
most particular faculty members might get their perfect assignment while

the faculty members who have historically been the most adaptable and
flexible are often the first ones assigned to a much less preferred course.
There are often situations where courses need to be shifted around to
avoid assigning a very undesirable course to a faculty member. When
these shifts need to take place the manual approach cannot evaluate all
the alternatives. Stepping away from the particular department studied,
another potential downside of the manual assignment approach in
general is the vulnerability to bias and personal preferences of the
individual creating the manual assignment. In a manual approach, the
scheduler ultimately has a lot of power and control over the department.
The course assignments have a huge impact on faculty members lives
and job satisfaction as well as students.

Scheduling
Once each course has been assigned to a faculty member, the
schedule is created to assign a timeslot to each course. The current
process of creating the timetable is a 13 paper based scheduling

technique. The majority of the scheduling is performed on a series of


schedule templates.
The scheduler collects availability data from each faculty member
on the scheduling template so that a schedule can be created without
conflicts. The scheduler prepares a paper schedule template form for
each

lab,

each

faculty,

each

upper

division

course

level,

and

manufacturing courses.
Once the schedule forms are created, the scheduler starts the
scheduling process. The scheduler typically begins with the most
constrained courses and faculty and places those first since they have
the least flexibility. Next, labs are placed primarily on Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday to leave Tuesday and Thursday mostly open for
80 minute lecture timeslots. The scheduler relies on the previous years
schedule as a guideline for the course timetable. Prior to placing any
course on the timetable, the scheduler verifies the availability of the
timeslot and tries to ensure there arent any conflicts with other courses
at the same level, room conflicts or faculty availability conflicts. The
timeslot should also fit in with the university defined timeslots. As each
course is placed on the timetable, the scheduler marks it on the

appropriate faculty member sheet, the course level sheet, and the lab
room sheet as needed.
With an eraser close at hand, the scheduler repeats this iterative
process with one course at a time and each time trying to schedule the
next most constrained course. Since the process is very iterative, there
are changes along the way that trickle down and impact several courses.
As this happens, the scheduler might either start over, shift courses
around, or compromise and allow a conflict of some sort.
The biggest downside of the manual scheduling approach is that
the scheduler cannot look at every combination of schedules and
evaluate which one is best. Since the scheduler cannot look at every
combination, it is likely that an overlap in courses is necessary in order
to schedule all the courses into the timetable. Some quarters might work
out with minimal overlap at the class level; however other quarters result
in overlaps in critical courses. These overlaps impact the students ability
to take their 15 desired courses.
Functional and Nonfunctional Requirements of Course Scheduling
System
Functional Requirements

The main functional requirements of the ACS are the following:


1. The ACS shall provide a means for entering and storing:
a. College information;
b. Department information;
c. Professor information;
d. Class information;
e. Building information;
f. Classroom information.
2. The ACS shall schedule, if possible, the classes into classrooms.
3. The ACS shall take into consideration for generating the
schedule the following parameters: classroom size, classroom
type, and distance from the department. These parameters shall
be selected by the user from a list of pre-defined values.
4. The ACS shall save the schedule in a format that can be used to
generate a University Semester Catalog that is readable by
humans.
5. The ACS shall notify the user if no valid schedule can be
generated and shall indicated the causes that prevent the
generation of a valid schedule.
6. The ACS shall write the schedule containing class and
classroom information to a file that can be read by supplied web
pages so that these can be posted onto the university web
server.
Non-functional Requirements

The most important non-functional requirements for the ACS are


the following:
1. The ACS shall be written in PHP;
2. The ACS shall store its files using XML tags;
3. The ACS will be platform independent.
Systems Requirements
Below are the conditions a computer system on which the
timetable software will be run:
Hardware Requirements
Desktop PC
1. Processor should be Pentium 5 and above
2. 128 Megabytes of RAM (or more)
3. 1 Gigabyte of Free Disk Space
Software Requirements
1. Windows XP (or higher)
2. Microsoft Office
Others
1. Printer
Developed Automated Course Scheduling System for Higher Educational Institutions

The Course Scheduling provides a complete solution to the course


time- tabling problem at Purdue University. It contains an attractive,
intuitive user interface along with a solver that can be used in a
variety of modes, ranging from a fully automated solution to assisting
with manual assignments. Currently, the system is used by the
central scheduling office for the large lecture scheduling problem.
Initial use by departmental schedulers will begin for the spring 2007
term, with full distribution in time for planning the fall 2007 term
(Keith

Murray

and Tomas Muller, Purdue University, West

Lafayette IN 47907, USA).


In an institution such as Bohol Island State University Main
Campus, Tagbilaran City, the Automated Class Scheduling System was
tested and evaluated the functionality of the program in terms of its
design, accuracy, data handling, security, stability and adaptability. They
concluded that the manual and the automated class scheduling systems
are both functional. However, the automated system is more functional
because of its extra features which solve the primary problems in
creating class schedules.

In Polytechnic University of the Philippines Santa Rosa


Campus, the campus administration had drawn the typical and a must
system for every school which is the scheduling of their classes with their
respective rooms. Automated Class Scheduling System endow with the
excellent learning of the students, also ensure quality education in terms
of classroom accommodation and exceptional facilities at a considerable
cost. (Raymundo, Sheena & Vicente, Leo Jeremiah; October 2012).
Regarding the rapid growth of the number of students and the
increasing number of courses offered in the college, the task of
scheduling classes to fit into timetables and into existing facilities is
becoming much more complicated. At the present time, class scheduling
not only needs to fit the courses offered but also has to be performed
based on many factors, such as availability and capacity of the room,
cost occurred when the rooms are engaged by any courses, losses
occurred when the rooms are left out, etc. Many academic institutions
are leveraging Automated or Integrated Scheduler System to manage
their classroom schedules. Why? Because it is very easy to automatically
schedule a class and locate the exact classroom.

Without well organized time management, classes are delayed, and


there is greater number of students in a class. There is a possibility that
an instructor will conflict to other instructor schedule.
Using the Course Scheduling System, it is easy to arrange class
schedules, instructors load, and room utilization for the students and
faculty in every department. Scheduling process can now be easily
managed through the use of the PIMSAT Automated Course Scheduler
System. It can accommodate schedules and information from students
and lecturers and assess their availability. It will lessen the hassles and
errors that a manual scheduler system creates during enrollment.

Chapter 3
METHODOLOGY
Research Design
Proper citation per paragraph.
The developer utilized the descriptive-developmental research
methodology. It was paired with the SDLC. To be precise, waterfall model
is being applied.

Descriptive research can be either quantitative or qualitative. It can


involve collections of quantitative information that can be tabulated along
a range in numerical form, such as scores on a test or the number of
times a person chooses to have a-certain program or subject, or it can
describe categories of information such as gender or patterns of
interaction when using technology in a group situation. Descriptive
research involves gathering data that describe events and then organizes,
tabulates, depicts, and describes the data collection (Glass & Hopkins,
1984 ~ update). It often uses visual aids such as graphs and charts to
aid the reader in understanding the data distribution. Because the
human mind cannot extract the full import of a large mass of raw data,
descriptive statistics are very important in reducing the data to
manageable form. When in-depth, narrative descriptions of small
numbers of cases are involved, the research uses description as a tool to
organize data into patterns that emerge during analysis.
On the other hand, developmental research is a study focused on
the progressive changes that occur as an organism develops. Its purpose
is to assess changes over an extended period of time. For example,

developmental research would be an ideal choice to assess the


differences in academic and social development.
Follow these guidelines: Next paragraphs (at least 5) will define the
SDLC to be used, WHY SUITABLE FOR SUCH PROJECTS, SIMILAR
PROJECTS THAT USED THE SDLC, and its phases. Then, introduce the
diagram. After the diagram, discuss one-by-one the phases of the
development.
NOTE: The diagram of the SDLC to be used should conform with the
discussion of the phases.
Each phase should be discussed using two paragraphs. Follow this
format:
Requirements

Analysis

Phase.

Discussion

of

the

phase.

Discussion of the phase. Discussion of the phase. Discussion of the phase.


Discussion of the phase.
This paragraph, on the other hand, discusses the developers
undertaking. What are the tasks done by the developer under this phase.
A Software Development Life Cycle is essentially a series of steps,
or phases, that provide a model for the development and lifecycle
management of an application or piece of software. SDL) is the most

common process adopted to develop a project. To be precise, waterfall


model is being applied.
Planning
Analyzing
Designing

Coding
Testing

Figure 2. The Waterfall Model


Download the correct figure for the Waterfall Model.
Waterfall model is a sequential model process where the input of a
phase actually results from the previous phase. There are five phases in
this model:
Phase 1- Planning stage. The planning stage determines the
objectives of the project and whether the project should be given the

green light to proceed. This is where the proposal submission comes into
picture.
Phase 2- Analyzing. Gathering and analyzing the system and user
requirements is essential for entry to the design step. With the user
requirements gathering completed, there is a need to prepare the
resources for the project. Be it software or hardware components, careful
consideration and selection is to be taken care at this stage. The decision
on the appropriate resources to be used is further elaborated under the
subsections below.
Phase 3- Designing. Design the system and database structure.
Results from the analysis and preparation that were concluded from the
previous stage are put into action. With the user requirements in mind,
the flow of the system is planned and the user interface is designed
to suit their easy navigation needs. In addition, the number of tables,
attributes, primary and unique keys of the database is listed. After
completing the design, actual coding begins.
Phase 4- Coding. Database is created and codes are written. Some
of the codes required amendments and improvement to it so these are

being developed at this fourth stage of the waterfall model. With the
development completed, testing will begin.
Phase 5- Testing. The codes and database are tested to ensure
the results obtained are as intended. More time is spent on both
development and testing stages because it is inevitable to have errors and
issues and buffer time is allocated for troubleshooting.
Sources of Data
The primary sources of data in the design and development of the
system were the information derived from observation and structured
interviews with VP for Academic Affairs, the HRDO and the Deans and
Program Heads of College of different Programs of PIMSAT Colleges.
Similarly, as secondary sources of data, the developer made use of
books, electronic journals, and the Internet. An analysis of existing
projects was also undertaken.
Instrumentation and Data Collection
A range of techniques were used to classify the requirements of the
system.

These

techniques

were

important

in

gathering

various

requirements of the system that were essential building blocks for


subsequent

developments.

These

techniques

include

observation,

structured interviews, analysis of existing projects, and library and


Internet research.
The data (i.e. Course data) used in the program are gotten from the
CU Intranet site (datacenter.cu). The different validation and constraint
was as a result of careful observation of the timetable release of the
school from past years.
Follow this guidelines.
Instrument1. Discussion on instrument1.
2nd paragraph --- how will the developer use the instrument.
Observation. Observation was done to determine the existing
processes in the arrangement of the course schedule. The developer
observed the actual process of time tabling of subjects in the college.
Through this, the problems in the current system were clearly identified.
Interviews. Informal interviews were conducted by the developer
to be able to gather facts, opinions and speculations of what end-users
want and how they assess current systems. In this context, the questions
raised are mostly referring to the processes in the current academic
advising procedures at the college. The developer noted the answer of the
all personnel interviewed which include VP for Academic Affairs, the

HRDO and the Deans or Program Heads of different Programs or


Courses.
Analysis of existing projects. The developer studied and reviewed
journals or white papers published with similar systems, as well as
unpublished materials that deal with on the study being conducted. As a
result, these have the helped the developer to easily compare and
evaluate the existing systems with them proposed one.
Library and Internet Research. Library and the Internet provided
lots of information that is useful for the research of the project. The
developer browsed books from the library to gather information that was
useful for the course of project development. Many tutorials and articles
that were available for download from the Internet were also useful.
Further, the use of search engines such as Google and Yahoo, and digital
libraries such Scribd have proven to result in providing vital information
which may not be found in books.
Tools for Data Analysis
The tools used for data analysis include the UML, use case
diagram, and Class Diagram.
Follow this guidelines.

Tool1. Discussion on tool1.


2nd paragraph --- how will the developer use the tool.
UML or Unified modeling language is an object-oriented system
notation that provides a set of modeling conventions that is used to
specify or describe a software system in terms of objects. The Unified
Modeling Language (UML) has become an object modeling standard and
adds a variety of techniques to the field of systems analysis and
development hence its choice for this project.
Use cases are used during the analysis phase of a project to
identify and partition system functionality. It is used to show the
interactions between users of the system and the system. A use case
represents the several users called actors and the different ways in which
they interact with the system. It defines a goal-oriented set of
interactions between external actors and the system under consideration.
That is, use cases capture who (actors) does what (interactions) with the
system, for what purpose (goal). A complete set of use cases specifies all
the different ways to use the system, and thus defines all behavior
required of the system, without dealing with the internal structure of the
system (Malan and Bredemeyer, n.d.).

A class diagram is an organization of related objects. It gives an


overview of a system by showing its classes and the relationships among
them. Class diagrams only display what interacts but not what happens
during the interaction hence they are static diagrams. A Class Diagram
is used to show the relationships between the different classes associated
with the system
Data modeling, on the other hand, shows the definition, structure
and relationships within data. It specifically documents the file and
database requirements for an information system, and provides a broader
impact to the design and construction of a system since it depicts the
business meaning, or semantics of data that should be included. (Hoffer,
George and Valacich, 2004). The most common format for data modeling
is entity relationship diagramming, which explains the characteristics
and structure of data independent of how data may be stored in
computer memories.

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