e Proceeding National Innovation and Invention Competition Through Exhibition (iCompEx’17)

IMPLEMENTING RAPID APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT (RAD)

METHODOLOGY IN DEVELOPING ONLINE LABORATORY AND ROOM
BOOKING SYSTEM (eLABAS)

ABSTRACT

Managing laboratories and room booking system and the evaluation of basic
equipment for laboratories and room manually is a tedious task, thus a system to
manage the booking and evaluation is proposed to be developed using Rapid
Application Development methodology. This methodology is chosen as it allows fast
implementation of the system in real development. The development had started in
Mac – August 2015 and the process had been developed based on the requirement
acquired. This system has been used for four semester in the department. This rapid
application development is proved to be a right methodology for this project as it
serves the goal of rapid implementation for a small size system with small size of
users.

Keywords: online booking system, e-booking, reservation, Rapid Application

Development, methodology

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Jabatan Pengajian Politeknik (JPP) have been provided Standard Operation Procedure
(SOP) to meet the quality procedure requirement as well as for the guidelines and
references. For Politeknik Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin (PTSS), this SOP usually referred
to the quality procedure document stated in PTSS-PK-11. One of the SOP is to the
evaluation of basic laboratories and rooms’ equipment at the end of each
semester.quality document number for this SOP is PP-11(7)(19-10-16). Department
of Information Technology and Communication is one of the academic department
that has six computer laboratories and four lecture rooms. Recognizing the importance
of this evaluation process, development of a system that could handle the process is
proposed. This proposed system also provide another two modules which are booking
system and damage report.

The proposed system is Laboratory and Room Booking System (eLABAS); a system
that was developed to provide and efficient method for booking any available
computer laboratories (labs) and rooms in the department. This system consists of
three major modules, but this paper is elaborated only two modules which are
laboratory & room booking and evaluation of basic laboratories and rooms’
equipment. This system is available to be accessed online with single sign-on. This
system will helps staffs in the department to find available labs and rooms and then
book them, usually for the class replacement location. Generally, throughout the
semester, all labs and rooms were fully occupied for lecture session. Therefore staffs
who need to do class replacement will face difficulties to find available location. The
staffs need to alert to their colleagues who are not in the office so that the staff can use
the available location. By the end of the semester, all staffs need to do the evaluation
 e Proceeding National Innovation and Invention Competition Through Exhibition (iCompEx’17)

manually, the form will be distributed to all locations’ users and the form need to be
given back to the location supervisor.

2.0 SYSTEM WORKFLOW

Managing laboratories and room booking system and the evaluation of basic
equipment for laboratories and room manually is a tedious task. The coordinator
needs to remind all the location supervisors at the end of semester to send the
compilation of evaluation form. Before that, location supervisor needs to print and
distribute the form to all users that used the location for whole semester. After that,
the location supervisor needs to wait for the user to return the form within the time
given. Sometimes, the location user will forget to return the form and the location
supervisor need to re-print the form. This will lead to the time consuming. After all
users return to the form to the location supervisor, the form will be returned to the
coordinator for analyzed and summarization.

2.1 Booking System Workflow

Previous process of booking available location for the lecture replace was
done manually. Staff need to fill in the booking form/book by first seeing
the location supervisor. The problem occurred when staff needs to find the
location supervisor when the location supervisor is not at his/her place and
the staff do not know where the location supervisor keep the booking
form/book. This will consume a lot of time to find when the location
supervisor is available because the booking can be made. Another concern
is about the paper usage, the booking form/book usually will be provided
by making a lot of photocopies. This will lead to the paper wastage.

2.2 Evaluation of Basic Laboratories and Rooms’ Equipment

Each laboratory and room in the department is assigned to a supervisor that

is responsible for every equipment available in that location.
At the end of every semester, all lecturers which are staffs in the department
as well, need to complete the evaluation of basic laboratories and rooms
equipments’. Labs and rooms supervisor needs to find all the lecturers that
used their labs and rooms throughout the semesters to fill the evaluation
form.
After users had finished fill in the form, they need to return form back to
the location supervisor. Sometimes the form just been left on the table
without location supervisor noticed, this will lead to missing form and the
flow need to be started all over again. Location supervisor needs to collect
all forms from the users before submit to the coordinator.
 e Proceeding National Innovation and Invention Competition Through Exhibition (iCompEx’17)

3.0 RAPID APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT METHODOLOGY

Rapid Application Development (RAD) is a concept that was born out of frustration
with the waterfall software design approach which too often resulted in products that
were out of date or inefficient by the time they were actually released. She also
claimed the term RAD was come from James Martin in early 1990s. (M, Rouse,
2016).

Rapid Application Development (RAD) was first coined by James Martin in his book
“Rapid Application Development”. In his book, Martin wrote “Rapid Application
Development (RAD) is a development lifecycle designed to give much faster
development and higher-quality results than those achieved with the traditional
lifecycle. It is designed to take the maximum advantage of powerful development
software that has evolved recently.” Martin states that there exist four fundamental
aspects of fast development which are tools, methodology, people and management.
(Daud, Bakar, & Rusli, 2010)RAD is a software development life cycle that permits
organization to develop product faster while reducing cost and time. They also added
about RAD is focuses on developing prototype model faster to get feedback from
customer.(Hassan, Qamar, & Idris, 2015).Phases involved in developing mobile
application using RAD such as requirement planning, user design, construction and
cutover. (W. F. W. Ahmad, Muddin, & Shafie, 2014).RAD methodology is time
driven rather than requirements driven. Surely requirements are what define the
functionality of the software. (Dillman, 2003). Figure 1 shows the phase involved in
RAD.

Figure 1: Rapid Application Development stages (Dillman, 2003)

As for Laboratory and Room Booking System, the development process literally
followed as shown in Figure 1. All phases involved in developing eLABAS are
similar to the method by Dillman. All this can be discuss here.

3.1 Scope
There will be two scopes which are scope of user and scope of system. For
user scope, there are three roles has been defined. Administrator who can
control the whole system. The privilege given to the coordinator. Second
role is staff with location supervisor privilege and the last one is staff who is
not location supervisor.
For system scope is the ability of the system to provide service to the users.
 e Proceeding National Innovation and Invention Competition Through Exhibition (iCompEx’17)

3.2 Requirement Analysis

In this crucial phase, problems were identified and came out with solutions.
Basically there are two preliminary studies that have been done in this
analysis phase. Firstly in preliminary study, problems regarding manual
rooms booking and basic equipments’ evaluation were identified in literature
review and surveyed to list down all the choices of solutions for the
problems.
In the second preliminary study, in order to determine the problems occurred
in the first preliminary study, a survey was conducted on thirty staffs of the
Department of Information Technology and Communication (ITC) PTSS.
The result of the survey proved that they were facing problem while
choosing room and laboratory for class replacement and loss basic
equipments’ evaluation form that has been distributed by the location
supervisor.

Rather than using preliminary studies for analysis, exploratory study also
can be done to cater the requirement for the intended user. (R. Ahmad, Chyi,
Sarlan, & Kasbon, 2015).

3.3 Design
There were two activities that involved in this phase. The activities were
database design and user interface design. For database design, all staffs will
be added as the users and supervisor will be added as role too. So, there will
be a normal staff with supervisor role and without supervisor role. All
locations will be matched with its supervisor. Several table will be added to
the database. Overall design for user database design as shown in Figure 2.

ROLE

booking has USERNAME

USER

LOCATION PASSWORD
NAME

Figure 2: User Database Design

For user interface design can be referred to part 5 in this paper. All interfaces
design have been discussed with the coordinator which is Penyelaras
Makmal dan Bilik Kuliah (PBMB).

3.4 Development
Develop process is the first step in prototype cycles. All the design interfaces
were translated into programming code. Referring to (R. Ahmad et al.,
2015), they have system architecture of developed tools. The computer must
be install with the software that required by the system architecture.
 e Proceeding National Innovation and Invention Competition Through Exhibition (iCompEx’17)

For eLABAS to be developed, several software have been used. eLABAS is

developed using Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Cascading Style
Sheets(CSS), and Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) language. HTML language
is used to develop the appearance of the website, both front office and back
office. CSS language is used to organize the style of the front office
appearance. PHP language is used to create and control the functions of
every subsystem. In the back office, Ajax technique is used to enable data
exchanging asynchronously between browser and server to avoid full page
reloads. The programming tools used is Eclipse PHP Development Tool
(PDT) and Adobe Dreamweaver Creative Suite (CS) 4. The tools used to
create the multimedia are Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Adobe Flash CS

3.5 Test
In this phase, prototype of the system will be demonstrate to the users to get
their feedback. For usability testing, a summative usability testing plan has
been used. Summative usability testing is the summative evaluation of the
prototype with representative users and tasks design to measure the system
usability and performance in order to identify how effective and user
friendly the system are. (Ebitisam K. Elberkawi ; Naser F. M. El-firjani ;
Abdelsalam M. Maatuk ; Shadi A. Aljawarneh, 2016)
The test was conducted in a computer laboratory involved with ten users as
the representative. They were given username and password to login to the
system. Before that, demonstration of system usage has been delivered.
After testing has been completed, the users need to answer several feedback
of the system. As the results, all ten users are satisfied with the system and
only two users commented about the user interface design.

3.6 Implementation
The system prototype will be amended upon users request to fulfill their
needs and requirement. The develop system should be friendly to user.
These three processes; develop, demonstrate and refine will be continuously
change and cycled until the completed system has been developed. If the
objectives have been met, the next phase will be continued.

3.7 Operation and Maintenance

Once the testing phase completed, system will be uploaded into server.
Training will be conducted to each level of user to demonstrate the
functionalities of each available module.

4.0 ADVANTAGES OF RAD

Advantages gained from using RAD are as described in Table 1. By using RAD it is
easier to implement as the development focuses on each requirement development at a
time. User involvement while developing product helps in improving user satisfaction
as more communication occurs while developing products and user can see the
product progress. Another advantage is that it takes shorter time to be implemented in
working environment. (Daud et al., 2010)
 e Proceeding National Innovation and Invention Competition Through Exhibition (iCompEx’17)

Table 1 : Advantages of RAD

Advantages
Ease of implementation
Improved user satisfaction
Shorter time-to market
Source: (Daud et al., 2010)

Advantages of using RAD as follows:(Hassan et al., 2015)

 Cost Effective
 Time Effective
 Fast Software Development Life Cycle
 Life cycle consumes 60 to 90 days
 Achieves High Customer’s Satisfaction
 Good Risk Management
 Reduce Developer’s Effort

Based on review from previous development for TimeSheet Application using Web
Services as Plug In (Alwi, 2005), RAD is the easiest way to develop system and its
can save cost and time.
Table 2 below shows the comparison and its criteria derived by (Hanafiah, 2007) from
Dillman research in (Dillman, 2003)

Table 2:Methodology Comparison and its Criteria

Methodology Budget Time Functionality
Waterfall High Long term Static
Incremental High Short term Static
Low Long term Static
Evolutionary Low Long term Dynamic
Spiral High Long term Dynamic
RAD High Short term Dynamic
Extreme / Agile Developement Low Short term Dynamic / Static
Source : (Dillman, 2003)

As the conclusion, the reason for eLABAS was developed using RAD because of time
constraint. The system need to be done by the end of the semester so that the
evaluation process of basic laboratories and rooms equipment can be done through
online system. Meanwhile, the first module which is laboratories and room booking
system can be used throughout the running semester just after the module completely
developed. Another reason for RAD to be choose in the development process because
of the ease of implementation. Developer first design the database and system
workflow to meet the easiness of usage.

5.0 DEVELOPMENT OF ONLINE LABORATORY AND ROOM

BOOKING SYSTEM (eLABAS)

Online Laboratory and Room Booking System (eLABAS) is developed based on

requirement in development process user shown in Table 2. This system consists of
two main user; PBMB (administrator) and staff. PBMB. This system was
development in the duration of less than six months (March 2015- August 2015). That
 e Proceeding National Innovation and Invention Competition Through Exhibition (iCompEx’17)

was the reason for using this methodology and development Gantt chart shown in
Figure 3.

Table 2: User requirement table

User Requirements
PBMB (Administrator) i. Maintain system
ii. Display report
Staff i. Booking room / lab
ii. Display booking information
iii. Manage personal booking

Activity March April May June July August

Analysis & Quick
Design
Develop
Demonstrate
Refine
Testing
Deployment
Figure 3:Gantt chart

Figure 4: Login Screen Interface

Figure 4 shows the login interface of the eLABAS. Registered user must login before
can view the available menu.
 e Proceeding National Innovation and Invention Competition Through Exhibition (iCompEx’17)

Figure 5:Interface of Available Modules

Figure 5 shows the available menu after user logged into the eLABAS. Actually
there are three menu available for the user. This paper is focused on the “SISTEM
TEMPAHAN MAKMAL / BILIK KULIAH”.

Figure 6:Interface of Menu in “Sistem Tempahan Makmal”

Figure 6 shows existing reservation that has been made by all users together with
previous reservation. By viewing this menu, user will no reserve any location that
has been reserved.
 e Proceeding National Innovation and Invention Competition Through Exhibition (iCompEx’17)

Figure 7: Interface of Location Choosing

Figure 7 shows the menu to select the location for the reservation. After select the
location user must key in the date and time for the reservation. User must click
“SIMPAN” to complete the reservation process.

Figure 8: Location users

Figure 8 shows location supervisor adding the users that used the respective computer
laboratory for basic laboratories and rooms equipment evaluation menu.
 e Proceeding National Innovation and Invention Competition Through Exhibition (iCompEx’17)

Figure 9: List of Location that used by the user

Figure 9 shows a list of location that has been used by the users throughout the whole
semester based on the time table. The user needs to evaluate all the equipment
available in those locations.

Figure 10: Basic Laboratories and Rooms Equipment’s Evaluation Form

Figure 10 shows the form for the evaluation process that needs to be fill by the
location users.

6.0 CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION

Development of eLABAS had been done to ease the process of booking the available
laboratory and room and also in to simplify the process of evaluation basic
equipments’ for laboratories and rooms. For the evaluation system, it still follow the
standard of procedure (SOP) that required by the Polytechnic. Rapid Application
Development (RAD) had been chosen due to it fast implementation. As this system is
a small size system, RAD is expected to the most appropriate method for the
development process. The used of this methodology allowed users to be part of the
system development whereas users can give comment by the time it is implemented.
It can be concluded that using RAD for a small size system and fast implementation
of the system is appropriate as users can see the product in a very short time and
developer can still control the activities in development process.
 e Proceeding National Innovation and Invention Competition Through Exhibition (iCompEx’17)

For evaluation of basic equipment for laboratories and rooms module, we believed
that it will make user feels easier to complete rather than supervisor needs to print and
distribute the evaluation from. By using eLABAS, location user will print the form
and give to location supervisor. eLABAS will make coordinator (PBMB) easier to do
the equipment analysis before submit the report to the Head of Department (HOD).

For location booking system, user not need to find location supervisor to book the
place by write the name and time for booking. User just login to the eLABAS and
select location together with time and date.

As a conclusion, the implementation of eLABAS is hope to provide a lot of benefits

to the user in the department especially. Generally, it is really hope that other
organization could takes some benefits from this eLABAS development. This system
as well can helps a lot of users in order to find available location for any needed
requirements and for the evaluation of basic laboratories and rooms equipments. For
future enhancement, we hope that user or administrator can release the location to free
if they are not using the location and the time and date will be disable for the location
that has been booked by another users.
 e Proceeding National Innovation and Invention Competition Through Exhibition (iCompEx’17)

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