online food ordering system: case study of Harare institute of technology, project proposal

TOPIC: ONLINE FOOD ORDERING SYSTEM: CASE STUDY OF HIT

1. RESEARCH TITLE
ONLINE FOOD ORDERING SYSTEM: CASE STUDY OF HIT

2. BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Online food ordering system is a system to manage the HIT canteen business. The main point of developing this system is to help canteen administrator manage the canteen business and help customers through online ordering and lunch reservation. The project is being developed because of the long queues that will be in the canteen during lunch hour, one for purchasing tickets and one for collecting food. It is difficult for the canteen staff to know the amount of food to prepare for a certain day or meal leading to a shortage or wastage of the food prepared. With the new system, the customers would be able to order their food from the comfort of their offices, classrooms, hostels and anywhere outside the school campus without queuing. The system will cater for the disadvantages of the traditional method which is currently in place.

3. Statement of the Problem
“The inability to order food on time in the canteen is leading to the shortage and excess of food and queuing leading to wastage or unhappy customers.”
4. Research Objectives
This study aims to design and construct an “Online Ordering System”, to provide an easy access in getting their orders and paying their bills.
To develop the system using PHP that will be used for the transaction.
To create a more convenient form of ordering and verification system in the HIT canteen
To lessen the work of the finance lady in collecting food funds before and during lunch.
To develop a system with a user-friendly interface. To develop a system that takes orders from the customer as per his/her choice.

5. Research hypothesis
The project development works on the following hypothesis:
An integrated system approach to system development is the solution to developing a user-based web application that allows students and lecturers to place their orders online.

6. Research Questions
1) What is the importance of developing an online food ordering system for HIT?
2) How can the HIT community benefit from this system in terms of their day to day transactions?
3) How can the application be efficient and convenient to the HIT community?

7. What the system will do?
Allow a user to create an account through registering on the website
Allow to view account history, bill, menu
Bill should be deducted when the payment is made
Allow one to place an order
User should be able to login if he/she is registered
User should receive short message service confirmation when order has been successfully placed
The system should a database that keeps the users details
It should be able to create reports.

8. Feasibility study

Technical
The project is feasible through the use of a computer which is the hardware .the software involved includes:
Wamp server
Adobe Dreamweaver CS6
PHP scripting language
MySQL database

Economical
In terms of the economical aspect, the software to be used is open source and hence minimal expense is going to be incurred.

Social
The project is going to have a positive impact socially as it will minimize the time people have to go to the dining hall to order food and make payment.

9. Justification
Technology is in the palm of our hands and whilst there is limited use of it. HIT as technological University this kind of technology has to be implemented to show its cause and calling and mission. As the writer waits in the queue every afternoon wanting to get a ticket for her lunch, she saw the need of having an online ordering system to save time that is wasted when queuing in the canteen
Literature Review
A review of existing systems similar to the proposed e-ordering system was undertaken. Evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of these systems will enable a better design of the proposed system, since relevant aspects and problems could be implemented and addressed respectively.
a. Domino’s Pizza Online Food Ordering System (Domino's Pizza Homepage) (Take a Fresh Look)
The Domino's online menu and ordering system is a website for purchasing food over the Internet. It allows the user to browse through the products available to them at their local take-away store and buy them using online payment, payment on delivery or in-store collection. Potential customers can also learn more about their choices and view new menu options and special offers.

Although the Domino's system is online and involves a delivery mechanism, it addresses the same overall problem in as much as it concerns viewing a menu and purchasing food digitally. However, as it is an Internet-based system, it is likely it assumes some familiarity with the usual mechanisms of computers and is less likely to be operated by touch-screen input. Additionally it involves purchase at a longer distance and thus not all of its approaches may be relevant to our problem.

There is no creation of accounts to allow a user view their bills so they can pay at the end of the month or in advance.

9.2 Palmer (1999), furthermore internet is an important application in developing the food industry because it can interact between restaurant and customer. Internet has been becoming a powerful channel for business marketing and communication. This review is in support of the writer’s research as she is using the internet to help communication between the canteen staff and its customers.

According to Flynn et a1 (2005), the important aspect in restaurant industry service today is online ordering. Nowadays the restaurant currently used traditional ordering system. This traditional system is difficult for the waiter to manage part of customer order. Besides, it may cause problem to restaurant administrator in store customer information and maybe the information lost. To settle this problem, the restaurant industry has predicted more quick increase in online ordering. The Internet technology becomes more popular and the access to the internet becomes more easy and convenient to the public. The computerized system used in restaurant industry to facilitate restaurant management without any problem.

The review above relates to a restaurant scenario but will be helpful in the writer’s research as the project is related. The benefits are the same in terms of being convenient and efficient.

10. Research methodology

10.1 Process Modeling

Waterfall Model

Characteristics
Activity-centered process that prescribes the sequential executions of life cycle activities (Result: documents).
All requirements are completed before the system design activity starts
The following phase should not start before the previous one has finished
The final product is eventually produced (no intermediary results)
Goal: Never turn back once an activity is completed
Refinement of first model: only few iterations are allowed but they are costly
Existing problems are left for later resolution, programmed around

Advantages:
Fits with other engineering processes Documentation is produced at each phase Simplistic view of software development (good for beginners…) Problems:
Inflexible partitioning of the project into distinct self-contained stages No flexible iteration are intended, every phase is worked out once The delivery of the overall product may retarded Process model is only appropriate when the requirements are well understood Requirements have to be fixed very early before design begins Problems in designing software for social domains missing iteration hinders user involvement missing flexibility does not allow reacting on changes in requirements

R
10.2 Population
The population the writer is targeting is the HIT Society

10.3 Sources of data
Data used is going to be secondary data as the programming language has written down code.

10.4Delimitations
The research is going to take place at HIT, for a period of less than a year.

10.5 Limitations

Technological changes
Time
Role Overload
Finance