Hercules Car Parking System: Automation Requirements And Solution

The report is prepared for Hercules car parking system, which is a manual car parking system and it currently operates in New South Wales in Australia. The company has a requirement for automating the car parking system and designs an effective solution for accommodating more number of cars, handle payment, control the barriers and issue tickets for the car entering the car parking system. The report is prepared for giving a brief overview of the problem and addresses the problem for increasing the efficiency of the car parking system.

Currently Hercules car parking faces problem in managing the cars and control the devices like the barriers and monitoring the car parking system. The implementation of an operational system for controlling the entry and the exit point of the parking lot is important for increasing the efficiency of the parking lot.

Outside Interface: The outer GUI interface is required to be made for the correspondence of the client with the executed equipment gadgets that are required to be installed in the car parking system (Dennis, Wixom & Tegarden, 2015). The developed user interface created for the car parking framework must be responsive and easy to use i.e. all the client can get to the framework effectively.

Endorsement: The created framework of the car parking system is expected to discard the unapproved right of passage of the system and limit the access of the resources to the lower level workers of the parking lot for increasing the security of the system. The entire access of the system is given to the structure starting to assessing the activities with respect to the control of database of the structure (Smith, 2015). Approval to the database is in charge of screening the system and is trustworthy for keeping structure up for 24x7 hours.

Payment: Different payment option should be kept to help the customer entering the car parking area for making payment and leave the parking area. The customer makes the installment after choosing the different option available for them such as paying via debit or credit card, pay in cash or get a seasonal ticket of the car parking system and use it for paying the charges of the car parking system (Sachdeva & Sunita, 2015). After the payment verification is compelling the leave obstruction rises and the customer can leave the auto stopping.

Database: DBA is trustworthy to beneficially manage the database server of the structure. The client records are put away in tables and a relationship is made between the tables for joining and creating a suitable aftereffect of the relation (Messersmith & McIntosh, 2015). The data of the normal ticket holders are put away in the database and it ought to misfortune any data that can realize a gigantic mishap for the association.

Functional Requirement

Business-rules: Hercules car parking should issues tickets after analyzing the available parking space and if the parking lot is full then no ticket must be issued and a message should be shown to the customer that parking space is not available.

Adaptability: The entry and the exit point of the car parking system must be secured and an attendant can be employed for conducting with the customer and increase the efficiency of the system during the rush hours.

Execution: the system must never be down and a backup system must be kept ready to handle any technical problem arising in the car parking lot (Huda, Arya & Khan, 2015). The system should be able to respond to the customer querry and the interface must be interactive and simple such that the user does not face any difficulty while using the system.

Accessibility: The developed system is required to be available for hours and the maintenance of the system is required to be done in the lean hours. More number of staffs is required for completing the maintenance within less time and increase the efficiency of the framework.

The main requirement for the development of the Hercules car parking system is as follows:

• Keeping records of the customer and their payment details in the current database of the information system is important for increasing the functionality of the system
• The data base is required to be secured with the application of encryption technologies and protect it from any unauthorized access (Vir & Mann, 2013).
• The errors or faults occurring in the system should be recorded and the a third party company is required to be engaged for management of the technical devices and resolve the errors.
• A service Level Agreement is required to be created with the third party company engaged for management of the device installed in the car parking system.
• The tariff plans is required to be stored in the database and it should be available to the users and they are required to be notified if there is a change in the tariff plans (Huda, Arya & Khan, 2015).

Conclusion

From the above report it can be concluded that Hercules car parking have a requirement to improve the current operation and thus an analysis is made for the current architecture of the system. The available technologies that can be implemented for improving the efficiency of the system is also analyzed and the requirement is prepared for increasing the efficiency of the system. Thus for proper management of the car parking system a fully functional information system is required to be developed that would control the equipments centrally and record the faults of the system  and reduce the errors that can be caused due to manual operations.

Research has been conducted on the available software used for management of the car parking system and the following system and software are found:

• Car Stackers
• Australian National car Parks

Car Stackers- This Company was first established in the year 1987 and it is specialized in providing parking solution for different companies. The company provides solution for meeting the increasing demand of the parking space and helps the organizations to automatically manage all the operation minimizing the efforts of the employees. The company mainly deals with installation and supply of premium car parking system throughout Australia. They have a great range of certified products that includes fully automatic or semi automatic platforms. Car stackers can be appointed for supply of the raw materials required for the development of the project (Clarke 2012). The company also helps in accelerating the progress of the development of the car parking system. The cars entering the car parking system can be located automatically and if the customer requests for his vehicle then the record are checked where the car is parked and the driver or the customer is provided with the location for getting his vehicle.

Non-Functional Requirement

With the involvement of the car stackers international with the current business it would benefit the company in different ways. Different parking solutions can be chosen depending upon the space available on the parking system and the current demand of the customer (Hanumantharaju, Ravishankar & Rameshbabu, 2013). Duplex or parking line solution can be applied for increasing the efficiency of utilization of the space and thus accommodating more vehicles in a small space. The lift parker solution can also be used for parking the vehicle above another vehicle. The selection of the solution from the company and creation of a service level agreement would help to get service from the company and efficiently manage the solutions (Cunha, Garis & Riesco, 2015). For maintaining the customer relationship the efficiency of the system must be increased and the application of the modern high tech technology can help in increasing the efficiency of the system. The solution provided by car stacks can increase the security of the system and makes the car parking system more reliable for daily usage.  The dual stacks provided by the company can be upgraded for accommodating more vehicles within the limited space (Geng & Cassandras, 2013). The maintenance of the system is done with a team of experts and the system is connected centrally for storing all the information and transmitting it to the central server of the information system.

Australian National car Parks- It is an experienced car parking management companies and the main service provided by the company are kerbside controls. The company provides advice regarding the design of the information system. Australian national car park have a website that controls different car parking sites and provides different service for the car parking system for efficiently manage all the operation required for the parking system. It also includes service like providing design and layout for the car parking, providing control system, construction and funding of the car parking system.

The involvement of the Australian National Car parks in the current project of Hercules car parking system would benefit the organization in different ways. It would help to prepare the layout and design of the system and install the equipment according to the plan for increasing the efficiency of the current manual system of the organization. The involvement would also help to get funds from the organization and build the car parking system according to the needs of the customer. Latest technology is required to be applied that would reduce the operation time and manage the operation (Larman, 2015). The involvement of the Australian national car park would help in implementation of high end features like installation of automated barrier at the entry and the exit point that would generate tickets or read card from the user. At the exit point the ticket is scanned according to the barcode printed on it. The barcode contains different information in encrypted format like registration number of the vehicle and the time of entry. The fare is calculated using the information of the barcode and shown on the exit point to the customer (Rosen et al., 2012). The device controls the devices and notes the errors occurring in the process and resolves it immediately for maintaining the system. If the information system of the Australian National Car Park is deployed it is required to be modified according to the requirement of the company. A technical expert is also required to be appointed for managing the different sensors and the devices installed in different location of the car parking system. The records of the car entering the car parking lot is required to be kept and the amount of revenue generated per day should also be kept for performing yearly audit. It also help to calculate the return of investment and profit percentage of the car parking system (Sharon & Dori, 2015). Moreover the cost of devices installed in the car parking system and the maintenance cost is also required to be recorded for maintaining the device. Some portion of the prerequisites for this framework is required to be modified for calculating the annual income and the profit and loss percentage of the Hercules car parking system.

Management Requirement

The report is prepared for the Hercules car parking system where there is a requirement of developing the information system. The information system can be developed using traditional software development or object oriented software development technique. For the development of the new information system there is a requirement of feasibility study on the current available technologies and the requirement of the car parking system. The An object oriented software development techniques is selected for the development of the car parking system.

The traditional software development models includes the waterfall model and this are the best model in theory because consists of all the several steps for developing the project. The steps consist of analysis, planning, building, testing, implementation and deployment (Sun & Chao, 2013). If the traditional model is followed it would take longer time for completion of the project and thus incur extra cost. This constraint is eliminated with the selection of the object oriented software development.

It consists of the following development phases such as:

• Analysis
• Design
• Implementation

The main task of the analysis stage is to formulate the problem and identify the user requirement and build the model depending on the objects associated with the real life. The functionality of the system is analyzed for identifying the functionality of the system (Hanumantharaju, Ravishankar & Rameshbabu, 2013). The details of the implementation are not required in this phase and it is developed for presenting the requirement to the non technical persons involved in the development of the project.  

The design phase is further subdivided into system design and object design. In the system design stage the latest technology is considered that can be implemented in the car parking system for increasing the functionality of the system. An architectural design is prepared by the system designer and the devices are selected that are required to be applied in the correct location for development of the car parking system (Zhou et al., 2014). For designing the system efficiently more effort is given on the objects rather than processes involved in designing the information system used for the car parking system.

The modeling of the information system is also involved in the design phase of the information system. In this phase the requirement of the new classes that are to be created for the improving the functionality of the system is defined (Larman, 2015). The association between the classes is also described in this phase and the classes are designed according to the functionality of the system and different algorithms are used for increasing the operation of the system.

Conclusion

For the implementation of the developed design an appropriate programming language or tool is required to be selected that can be used for storing the records of the customer. The database administrator is responsible for developing a database with tables and relations for fetching the appropriate information from the database (Rosen et al., 2012). On the development of the codes it is required to be tested multiple times and the errors and warnings must be removed for application in the practical field.

The object oriented approach is selected for the development of the project because it takes less time and thus reduces the cost incurred in the development of the information system.  The traditional method is not possible to be implemented for the development of the real life projects like the information system for the car parking system. In traditional process a top down approach is followed and it is not possible to start a task without completing the previous one. If any error is found in the later stage of development of the car parking system using traditional method then the developers have to begin the development from the scratch. The object oriented approach if selected can help in faster development of the project and at a lower cost.

Conclusion

From the above report it can be concluded that the selection of the object oriented approach for the development of the information system of the car parking lot would help the developer to develop the information system at a faster rate. The cost involved in the development of the information system would also be less than the traditional software development. The project can be developed in modules and is any error occurs in the project the module can be discarded and resolve the errors occurring in the system. The object oriented approach is required to be followed for efficiently develop the car parking system. 

For the selection of the object oriented approach for the development of the information system for the car parking system. A Rambaugh object modeling technique is selected for the development of the project. In this method a proper analysis is done on the requirement of the project, and then the design is created aligning the requirement of the project. The last stage is the implementation of the design in the practical field for the completion of the development process (Sharon & Dori, 2015). It is a fast and intuitive approach and all the elements required for the development of the project is identified for modeling and building the system. Different classes are used for recording the functionality and inheritance are used for proper association of the classes into the database of the system. Using the object modeling the detailed specification and description of the transitions of the states can be achieved. The different parts of the object modeling techniques are object model, dynamic model and functional model (Sun & Chao, 2013). The object model is used for designing the data dictionary, the dynamic modeling used for the creation of the state diagrams and the flow diagram of the car parking system and lastly the functional model is used for demonstrating the flow of data and the constraints of the system.

Available Software Solutions: Car Stackers and Australian National Car Parks

The available object oriented methodologies for the development of the information system of the car parking system are as follows:

Object oriented analysis and design: Signification of the methodology that the analysis is required to be completed in a uniform direction and on the completion of the analysis the design phase is required to be started (Zhou et al., 2014). The analysis should be done based on the requirement of the organization and the system is required to be divided into different sub systems for analysis. The result of the analysis can be used for identification of the functionality of the system.

Prototyping and design: A prototype of the project is required to be created for understanding the requirement and after the approval of the prototype the full development process is required to be started. For the preparation of the prototype the key system stakeholders can be involved for increasing the efficiency of the development process (Dennis, Wixom & Tegarden, 2015). There is a requirement to examine the tickets at the exit point and it should be included in the prototype design for showing the functionality of the system. The design of the developed information system must be attractive, unique and should be easy to use by the users. The devices should be connected centrally and should be controlled from a central point for increasing the functionality of the system.

Object interaction and messages: Interaction messages are required to be interacting with the domain objects. If there is a requirement for changing the design of the information system the model is required to be analyzed and the issues in the coding part is required to be resolved immediately by the software programmers (Smith, 2015). The charges of using the parking lot is required to be calculated depending on the cost incurred with the development of the project and the demand of the parking lot. The charges can be kept high during the rush hours and it should be informed to the customer via different means of interaction. A functional module is required to be created for sending and receiving messages from one module to another and increase the functionality of the system.

Object oriented system programming: The various stages of development must be started at a time and such designing the information system and coding the programs for adding functionality to the system. The requirement for the development of the car parking system is categorized as same category and it helps to identify the objects that are required to be programmed for the development of the car parking system. The useful modules are sub isolated, the prerequisites of the venture are broke down, and a model of the venture is made and is checked by the legislature (Messersmith & McIntosh, 2015). The components or the elements that are needed to be recorded in the database of the car parking system should be divided into sub categories and entered into specific column of the created table for faster operation. The database of the car parking system can be created using oracle or my SQL and the designed interface must be linked with the database created in background for storing of showing all the data generated from the parking system.

The tools and techniques available for the development of the car parking system are as follows:

• The visual modeling language like creation of use case diagram for the identification of the actors and the elements associated with the car parking system.
• Modeling of the classes for identification of the state, identity and behavior of the system is also important for the development of the information system.
• Different CASE tools can be used for modeling the system and develop the use case, state chart, sequence diagram, component diagram and activity diagram (Huda, Arya & Khan, 2015).
• The different automation tools are used for the development of the software and the automation of the tools helps in maintaining the consistency of the process and develop the information system without any errors.

For the development of the information system of the car parking the prototype and design is chosen because it is most suitable for the project. In this method the clients are involved actively in the development process and thus results in less dissatisfaction and better understanding of the requirement. It is an ideal solution for the development of the complicated large solution like car parking system (Sachdeva & Sunita, 2015). The prototype of the car parking system is build with removing some of the functionality and with a goal to get an overview of the overall system. With the selection of the prototype model the errors that can occur in the project can be identified much earlier and the development team must be prepared for resolving the errors. The functionality that are currently missing in the car parking system can also be identified with the application of prototype model for the development of the project (Clarke, 2012). Since a limited budget is allocated for the development of the project the team member is required to be combined with skilled and fresher for reducing the development cost. The project is also required to be completed with a limited time frame and thus prototype model is the only option to quickly develop the system in limited time and budget.

References

Clarke, S. (2012). Information systems strategic management: An integrated approach. Routledge.

Cunha, A., Garis, A., & Riesco, D. (2015). Translating between Alloy specifications and UML class diagrams annotated with OCL. Software & Systems Modeling, 14(1), 5-25.

Dennis, A., Wixom, B. H., & Tegarden, D. (2015). Systems analysis and design: An object-oriented approach with UML. John Wiley & Sons.

Geng, Y., & Cassandras, C. G. (2013). New “Smart Parking” system based on resource allocation and reservations. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 14(3), 1129-1139. Ma, T., & Mohammed, O. A. (2014). Optimal charging of plug-in electric vehicles for a car-park infrastructure. IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, 50(4), 2323-2330.

Hanumantharaju, M. C., Ravishankar, M., & Rameshbabu, D. R. (2013). Design of Novel Algorithm and Architecture for Gaussian Based Color Image Enhancement System for Real Time Applications. In Advances in Computing, Communication, and Control (pp. 595-608). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Huda, M., Arya, Y. D. S., & Khan, M. H. (2015). Quantifying Reusability of Object Oriented Design: A Testability Perspective. Journal of Software Engineering and Applications, 8(4), 175.

Larman, C. (2015). Applying UML and Patterns: An Introduction to object-oriented Analysis and Design and iterative development”, Pearson Education, 2005.

Messersmith, C., & McIntosh, B. (2015). Capturing Bad Design Practices in Object-Oriented Code.

Rosen, M., Lublinsky, B., Smith, K. T., & Balcer, M. J. (2012). Applied SOA: service-oriented architecture and design strategies. John Wiley & Sons.

Sachdeva, A., & Sunita, M. (2015). An Empirical and Analytical View of New Inheritance Metric for Object-Oriented Design.

Sharon, A., & Dori, D. (2015). A Project–Product Model–Based Approach to Planning Work Breakdown Structures of Complex System Projects. IEEE Systems Journal, 9(2), 366-376.

Smith, B. (2015). Object-Oriented Design… A Revisit. In Advanced ActionScript 3 (pp. 357-371). Apress.

Soni, N., & Khaliq, M. (2015). Maintainability estimation of object-oriented software: Design phase perspective. Int. J. Adv. Res. Comput. Commun. Eng, 4(3), 538-542.

Sun, S. P., & Chao, W. S. (2013). An Architecture-Oriented Design Method For Gaming Business Administration Systems. In C], Asia Pacific Conference on Gambling & Commercial Gaming Research (APCG2013), Taiwan.

Vir, R., & Mann, P. S. (2013). A hybrid approach for the prediction of fault proneness in object oriented design using fuzzy logic. journal of academia and industrial research, 661-666.

Zhou, Y., Yang, Y., Xu, B., Leung, H., & Zhou, X. (2014). Source code size estimation approaches for object-oriented systems from UML class diagrams: A comparative study. Information and Software Technology, 56(2), 220-237.