TAITA TAVETA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

(A Constituent University of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology)

A PROJECT PROPOSAL SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF ICSIT IN

FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF THE

DEGREE OF BACHELOR IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR TAITA

TAVETA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

ONLINE AUCTION SYSTEM FOR ART WORK

By

MORINE GAKII GITONGA

DECLARATION

I declare this research proposal is mine based on the research conducted on the auction system

for artwork and no part of it has been copied from any other person(s).

Signature…………………………… Date………………………

SUPERVISOR’S APPROVAL

This report has not been copied from any document and has been assessed and approved. It has

been proven valid and legit

Signature…………………………… Date…………………………….

DEDICATION

I dedicate this proposal affectionately to my loving mom who always gave me unlimited support.

It’s no doubt that without her I would not have made it through the research. I also dedicate this

proposal to my supervisor who dedicated all his time to guide me in my research and correct me

when need be. Lastly, I thank all my friends although are busy colleagues guided me in my

research and corrected me where possible.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This research proposal would not have been a success without the opportunity given by the

school of ICSIT, the department and the entire Taita Taveta University College fraternity to put

what have been doing in the past 4 years in a summary of one document. It was such an honor

and hope the spirit will continue to the other students approaching the stage.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT

The project entails the shortcomings encountered while doing auctions manually which maybe

very risk in terms of security. It uses a web application that will come in handy when transacting.

The bidder will be able to place his bids without the track of malicious people. The user will be

able to put his details which will be saved and be able to be viewed only by the administrator.

This will ensure the safety from been exposed to robbers and other malicious individuals.

The user/ viewer will also be able to request for bid and it may be even possible for them to keep

track of the other people’s bids for competition. This existence of competition may make the

owner of the artwork make more money than expected.

The admin will be able to view the details of the user, add an auction item for those interested to

place their bids, view the progress as the users continue to bid, update auction items when

available, delete auction item in case of expiry of the item. This is because the auction items are

places in given intervals of time, which when done the item is to be taken down to give space for

other demanding items.

The current manual auction systems involve people from different walks of the world making

long distance travels just to be present at an auction room. This is to attend and see some of the

artworks being show cased and choose one which interests, in which later you can place your

bid. Other people who are competing for the same also place their bids. The limitation of this is

the travelling and wasting of money just to come and buy one artwork.

The introduction of online auction system will be a way of solving some of the problems. The

system will be available for anyone and will help get rid of many of the above problems. It will

be used by auction companies to communicate their artwork with customers and anyone who

wants to place bids effectively. It will also make work easier for the people to be able to access

the services of auction Companies without having to travel all the way to auction rooms.

CHAPTER ONE:

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Art auction is one of the most ancient businesses in the world dating back in the 17th century.

Although in those years the names of the auctioneers were not important so were highly

suppressed, in June 1963, John Evelyn mentions a “great auction of pictures (Lord Mel fort’s) in

the banqueting house, Whitehall”. Initially, an auction catalog, that lists the artwork to be sold

would be written and made available before the auction date. Some of the old best known

auction houses include, Stockholm Auction house (Stockholms Aukionsver) established in

Sweden in 1674.

In those days auction of art lacked the incentive and excitement. The first art collection to come

under hammer was that of Edward, Earl of Oxford, dispersed by Cock, under the piazza, Covent

Garden, on March 8, 1742. Nearly all the leading men of the day attended at this sale, and the

prices varied from five shillings to 165 guineas (gns).

England had not realized the value of art until at Sir William Hamilton’s sale when Beckford

paid 1,300 gns for a little picture of “A Laughing Boy” by Leonardo da Vinci.

The late 1980’s was a boom period for art in auction houses. In 1990, the market collapsed, USA

overtook England as the world’s largest art market with global share of 47% by 2001. United

Kingdom ranked second with around 25%. In continental Europe, France was the leading while

in Asia, Hong Kong was dominating. France’s share of the art has been eroded since in the

1950’s. Art auction sales reached a record of billion in 2010, fuelled by speculative bidding for

artists like Damien Hirst, Jeff Koon and Richard prince.

The recent rise of Chinese art market, both in terms of size of its domestic sale and international

significance of its buyers combined with rich cultural heritage of art and antiques produced a

huge domestic market.

In November 2013, $142.4 million was paid for the 1969 triptych, three studies of Lucien Freud,

by Francis bacon. The highest price ever to be paid for an artwork at auction was Pablo Picasso’s

les femmes D’Alger that was sold by Christie’s in may 2015 for $179.4 million.

With today’s changing technology, art auction has not been left out. This research proposal

contains a preview of research conducted to shed some light on how the art auction system to be

created is actually going to work and what it indicates about the price formation. Firstly, in

recent years, returns on art assets appear to be little from returns in other assets. In addition,

researchers have found that because of the weak correlation between arts assets returns with

other returns, there may be a case for the inclusion of art assets in a diversified portfolio (ArtTactic and Deloitte, 2013).

Second, there is some evidence of anomalies in market art pricing. The evidence clearly suggests

that contrary to the view of the art trade, “masterpieces” underperform the market. In addition,

there is considerable evidence that is fairly long periods in which art prices may diverge across

geographical areas and even auction houses. Some auction houses like the Christie’s have been

accused of price fixing. In this price fixing, the buyers were not affected by the collusion but the

sellers were. This is one of the many various reasons why online auction system for artworks

maybe important.

Finally, There is considerable theoretical research on strategic . and we review three key

findings. The value of most important works of art is established by public auction, either

directly, by an actual sale, or indirectly, by reference to other sales. How the auction system

works is therefore a critical determinant of how public’s a preference are translated into the

evaluation of artistic work. The auction system is therefore the central in the determination of the

incentives for artistic work, and the efficiency of the auction system is a key determinant of the

cost of creating and distributing work of art.

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT

The existing Auction System for antique Item is managed manually. This is a limitation due to

security issues. Auctions involves showcasing and selling of valuable arts. When the security

system is weak, anything may happen. People in auction rooms may be attacked by robbers

which may lead to injury or loss of lives. Rich individuals may be “marked” and become target

of attack.

According to Alfonso Ferreira, Jose’ Rolim ( 2013) The user who want to sales their things or

items by auction than he would announce for that through the media or other way. This is a

limitations to those who /lack electronics to their households of if the advertisement is done in

the absentia of a person. The use of newspaper is also a limitation since not all people are able to

read or have the time to read the newspapers. This is a limitation because one may lose an

artwork which he/ she wanted because of lack of information.

Bidders who need to buy there things than he attend the place of bidding. The early day’s auction

systems involved people attending auction sessions which were set at a definite time. Some

would not make it because were travelling from far places and so most of the time they would

miss the sessions and probably not get the artwork they wanted to purchase.

The auction houses are not for every individual, they are for the selected few with ticket to

attend. This limits the people with no authorization although those people may have an interest in

some art work.

These auctions also cover a small geographical area, for example a person in Mandera Kenya

may not be aware of an art auction taking place in Kisumu Kenya. This makes the auctions to be

attended by small amount of people and may be unable to exhaust selling of the arts.

1.3 OBJECTIVES

Objectives are the aims of the study that is, the purpose of the study, in the proposed system.

There are two main types of objectives discussed, as illustrated below

GENERAL OBJECTIVE

The following is a general objective;

To develop an online auction system for artwork which when implemented will effective and of

great help to the auction companies.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

The following outline specific objectives of the proposed system;

1. To study the role of auction house experts in market efficiency system with an aim of

identifying the requirements for an interactive online auction system.

2. To shed light on the determinants of art prices so as to implement and improve them in

the system.

3. To develop a prototype system based on research into managing auction of artworks.

4. To test and review the system for usability and functionality.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. What are the necessary requirements for interactive online auction system in relation

to the role of auction house experts in market efficiency?

2. Can the determinants of art prices help in improving and implementing the system?

3. How to a develop a prototype system that can manage auction system for artworks?

4. Does the system meet all the user’s usability and functionality?

1.6 HYPOTHESIS

The online auction system will be web based therefore will be available online. It will be able to

be accessed by anyone with internet connection. The ability of the proposed system to provide

advertisements and information online will cut down the limitation of people not reading the

newspapers and therefore information will be passed across effectively and efficiently.The fact

that the auction will be online and the bidders’ information will be viewed only by the

administrator does away with the security issues. There will be no access to information by

malicious people. The users will be required to enter their credentials therefore incase of any

problem the persons involved will be easily tracked down.

1.7 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The online auction system for artwork will not only help the administrator, it will also be of great

importance to the bidders and other interested persons. Some of the impacts include; It will help

the administrator to track the bids for reference reasons, in case of any problem, will also help

reduce the cases of security due to the providence of thorough details by the users, will eliminate

the cost of travelling from one place to another since the artworks will be displayed online.

Finally, People will be able to place their bids online hence easy transactions.

1.8 SCOPE OF STUDY

The propose system will be of great help to the auction companies. It will aid them in doing

away with the manual auction systems which have a lot of limitations. Through this, the

companies will be able to make more profit and their interaction with the bidders/ users will be

increased greatly.

CHAPTER 2:

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

Auction of art has been there since the 17th century. It has even become an important source of

income to some companies. According to The New York times article (March 4 2016),

companies that engage in art based lending hope to attract more collectors. According to

Sotheby’s report, others have made up to even $11.2 million losses. Due to these problems,

many websites and softwares and systems have been developed for doing online art auction.

Although these sites have tried to solve all the problems, they cannot exhaust everything. Below

is just an overview of what they have done so far.

2.2 Theoretical review/ conceptual framework

figure 2.2 Conceptual framework

2.2.1 Price determinants of artwork sold at auctions

The prices for art at auctions are determined by supply and demand. The interaction of supply of

artwork with the demand from art investors produces the market clearing price at art auctions.

This price can then be related to a set of characteristics, or price determinants. The price

determinants of artworks at auctions are based on the hedonic pricing theory of heterogeneous

goods, which in its own turn is grounded on consumer theory. In the case of the art market, an

artwork can be interpreted as a combination of certain aesthetic features. It is the presence of

these features that give the non-pecuniary utility, and when purchasing a piece of art, one is

paying for these aesthetic and other attributes. Theoretically, there is no given set of art price

determinants. Empirical studies rather employ the data available, which is usually a certain

Price determinants of

artwork sold at auctions.

Impact of Auction

House Art Experts.

Effective User functionality

and usability

Prototype for managing

online auction system for

artworks

Effective online auction

system

number of attributes of I ) the art work itself, ii) the artist, as well as iii) time and place of sale.

Some of the price determinants used can be justified by an underlying economic reasoning of

demand-supply interaction. Others, such as time and place related characteristics, are included

for control, to account for demand. It is only by the use of online auction system for art that the

quality and aesthetic value of art can be proven.

2.2.2 Impact of Auction House Art Experts.

The art experts at auction houses who evaluate artwork and give price estimate ranges can be

compared to stock price analysts. Their price estimates can be seen as price forecasts. More

often, pre-sale estimates provided by the auction house art experts serve as an anchor for actual

realized prices during the auctions (Beggs and Graddy, 2010). Since the early 1970’s almost

every art auction house provides an expert appraisal of each item that is put up for auction. Art

auction houses typically have a team of art experts specialized in various types, movements and

styles of art. These art experts make their appraisals based on their expertise and experience.

They are aware of the past and current trends and monitor the art market closely. Each artwork

receives a low estimate, as well as, a high estimate and the market value is estimated to lie

between these two numbers. According to the general auction theory, the auctioneers are better

off providing honest and truthful estimates (Milgrom and Weber, 2012).. The vast majority of

the extant empirical studies focus on the forecasting accuracy of the price estimates that the

auction house art experts give. Ashenfelter (1989) and Louargand and McDaniel (1991) are some

of the first studies to look at the correlation between the auction house art experts’ estimates and

realized prices. Both of the studies, using different, but small, datasets, conclude that the price

estimates are very close to being unbiased, as they are highly correlated to realized prices. More

recent studies that have confirmed the above findings using larger datasets and better methods

include McAndrew, Smith and Thompson (2012). Ekelund, Ressler and Watson (2012), on the

other hand, an upward bias in the auction house art expert estimates using a dataset of Latin-

American art. Likewise, Mei and Moses (2013) show that there is a consistent upward bias in

price estimates for expensive pieces of American art. Nevertheless, it is important to control for

the impact of the auction house art expert’s appraisal of the artworks value. Most of the studies,

such as the ones above, focus mainly on either the average of the high and low estimates or just

one of them at a time. An exception is Mei and Moses (2013), where the estimate spread is

included as well. Their finding is that art returns increase with the relative spread. Unfortunately,

this finding is left without an explanation or justification. It is through the online auction system

for art that some of the above biasness will be able to be done away with.

2.2.3 Prototype for managing online auction system

The first ever made prototype for online auction was developed in 1995 by a research scientist E.

skorve at NR. The auction system was implemented using common 3-tier architecture. All the

information about the bids placed can be inserted in to the database at any time before the

auction starts. This includes, the type of art that is either is a painting sculpture etc. when an

auction is running information about the bidding process is also stored in the database. This

eliminates two problems. Firstly, problems arising from simultaneous bids are eliminated since

serializing access to the database tables is handled by the database engine itself. Secondly, since

all user interaction is longed and time-stamped, a detailed post- analysis of bidder behavior can

easily be performed, allowing tuning of the auction parameters and thus resulting in an improved

auction model.

The middle tier is the co-coordinator of the auction. It communicates with the database, inserting

new bids for auction. It handles connection requests from bidders, registering them and their

subsequent bids in to the database. It is responsible for broadcasting events to all participants

such as information about the newest arts (bids)/this application is implemented as a standalone

web based application. It communicates with database through xampp (php).

2.2.4 Test Effective User functionality and usability

According to (genesis framework, 2016) in usability testing basically the testers tests the ease

with which the user interfaces can be used. It tests that whether the application or the product

built is user friendly or not. It also reveals whether user feel comfortable with the application ar

website according to different parameters. Usability testing tests how easy it is to use the system,

how easy it is to learn the software and how convenient is the system to the end user

Effective online auction system

Auctions are well known market mechanisms. An online auction can be viewed and discussed

from a number of perspectives example, a technical, a functional (user), or a customer

perspective. As a result a number of international journals have been established .these include

electronic markets (http://www.electronicmarkets.com), international journal of electronic

commerce(http://www.cba.bgsu.edu/ijec) and journal of computer mediated

communication(http://jcmc.huji.ac.il)(JCMC) .

2.3 System review

2.3.1 eBay.com

(http://cayman.ebay2.com/aw/index.html)

eBay acts solely as a listing-agent. Auctions typically last 3-7 days from the placement of an art

based on the duration the seller selects at the time the bid is placed .the sellers and the bidder

must fill in the registration form with email address and has to be used in a reply and

conformation sequences. The user uses a ‘bid-button’ to send to eBay information about the

maximum amount he/she is willing to pay for the item. The amount is kept secret from other

participants and eBay is bidding on behalf of the person as other bidders increase their bids.

eBay automatically terminates the bidding at the end of the auction, and notifies the seller and

the highest bidder via email. Then the buyer and the seller should contact each other within three

business days of the end of the auction.

2.3.2 Onsale.com

(http://www.onsale.com)

Onsale is specializing in computer equipment and has two auction formats called Yankee auction

and standard auction. In Yankee auction a number of identical items are offered for sale at the

same time. When the auction closes the highest bidders win the available inventory at their actual

bid prices. Prior to closing, the currently successful bidders are listed in priority order, including

their price quantity and time. Therefore according to onsale.com, the auction may remain open

after the posted closing time during what is called ‘Going, Going, Gone’ period.

All standard auctions bid are proxy bids where onsale keep bidders actual bid secret and make

lower bids as necessary on bidder’s behalf. If there are no other bidders, onsale places a public

bid on the bidders name at the minimum bid price. This means that the bidder never pay more

than a little above what someone else is willing to pay, and so are free to place the highest bid

privately right from the start according to onsale. The standard auction closing time or five

minutes after the last bid is received, whichever is later. Therefore according to onsale.com, the

auction may remain open after the posted closing time during what is called ‘Going, Going,

Gone’ period.

Asteinrete.com

Is an Italian based online auction website that can be used by sellers to advertise their art for the

bidders to buy. It is the largest in Italy and very helpful with artwork.

The first page of the on line auction portal is the home page

A registered user can view his/her received messages and the status of his/her auctions in the personal page:

2.4 System critique

Following the study done by the University of Bolzano/Bozen, Faculty of Computer Science,

there has been a lot of development in terms of auction systems to be precise in artworks. Many

sites have been developed to counter the problems experienced in auction houses and manual

auction system. Some of the most famous auction websites include; eBay.com, asteinrete.com

and Onsale.com. Although these sites have tried, they have not been able to cover all the

problems involved in online auctioning. The table below describes the functionality offered to

the users by this three big auction.

User stories eBay.com asteinrete.com Onsale.com

Home page X X X

Registration X X X

Login X X X

Personal page X X X

Search X X X

Excluding a word X

In a given category X X X

In a given city X

Having a price form € ¿€ X X

Browse X X X

Item page X X X

Bid X X X

Post an auction X X X

Help X X X

Change language

Administration ? ? ?

As shown in the table, all the three systems give the possibility to register, to login to the website

and have a home page with a general description of the portal. They offer also a personal page,

where each user can check the status of their auctions or of their offers.

Another characteristic of this portals is to have an item page, a page that describes each item on

auction (with a textual description, a photo etc.).

The search functionality is also very important: in addiction to a normal keyword search, eBay

offers also the possibility to search excluding a given word, search in a given category, search for

auctions regarding a given city and to make price range (from € to €) search.

All the three systems give also the possibility to place a bid, to post an auction and have also

some help pages that explain the aims of the portals and the functionality. None of the portals has

the possibility to change language (onsale.com is in English, asteinrete.com is in Italian while

eBay.com is in English but there is also the Italian version at eBay. it) and only eBay.com has a

chat room for the users.

2.5 Gaps

eBay.com

Being a worldwide site , it should have the diversity of different languages to be understood to

all the races who do not speak or understand either English or Italian. it should also have a

central administrator known to people who can handle bidders complains ,be held responsible if

auction goes wrong.

asteinrete.com

just like eBay.com, it lacks the diversity of language and the administrator is not known or even

doesn’t have one admin. Also, the aspect of search in this website is really limited to only the

category of the auction. That is if one needs an artwork on paintings or sculpture, its possible but

if searched in terms of city there will be no success.

Onsale.com

Just like the other two above sites, it lacks the diversity of language and no known administrator

to handle the clients for them to feel appreciated. The search is also limited in such a way that a

piece of art can’t be traced by use of word exclusion.

2.6 summary

Unlike the above sites, the proposed system will have a central administrator to deal with the

clients. It will also enable search by use of the city, word exclusion etc. however, it will be a

challenge to bring out the diversity of languages and so it won’t be possible to be accomplished.

With the sell and the value of the artwork on the rise,it is important for people to start getting

serious about art and start investing in it. This discovery has led to people crowding museums

and auction houses. The museums alone can not give value to the artworks and it is left to the

people to give it value.for instance, the number of art collectors in the middle east is growing, yet

not enough to make impact(artwork by Aalaa Albastaki, Dec 2015)

CHAPTER THREE: SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

3.1 Introduction

This part of the research proposal involves the use of system analysis and design as a tool. it is

dedicated to the requirement collection (done with the collaboration of the customer, in this case

the bidder), the design of the system, done using UML use cases and class diagrams, and of the

relational database, done with EER (extended entity relationship diagram) as modeling

technique.

3.2 Systems Development Methodology

A system development methodology refers to the framework that is used to structure, plan, and

control the process of developing an information system. A wide variety of such frameworks

have evolved over the years, each with its own recognized strengths and weaknesses. One system

development methodology is not necessarily suitable for use by all projects. Each of the

available methodologies is best suited to specific kinds of projects, based on various technical,

organizational, project and team considerations.

3.2.1 System design

Rapid application development

This is a development methodology in which a system designer produces prototypes for an end

user. The end user reviews the prototype and offers feedback on its suitability. This process is

repeated until the end user is satisfied with the final system. It puts less emphasis on planning

tasks and more emphasis on development. It is driven by user interface requirements.

Figure 3.1 stages of RAD()

Requirement planning

This phase is similar in concept to the traditional analysis phase. However, the nature of planning

when constantly reviewing prototypes means that it is often revisited within what would

traditionally be regarded as design and implementation. Rather than the client working with the

systems analyst to devise a software specification, the client is continually involved in reviewing

the design and related prototypes that are generated throughout the process. This can result in

alteration to the client’s requirements. It is often the case that clients have little or no technical

awareness. Only when they see prototypes of different elements of the system during the

subsequent design are better prepared to firm up and finalize the requirements that they may

have had during a traditional analysis phase. Often requirement planning focuses on planning for

a range of prototypes.

Design phase

Once the clients initial needs have been determined, the software development team will invest

as much as they can in generating prototypes that can be taken back to the client for refinement.

This avoids situations where the client agrees with a proposal on paper but then disagrees with

the software that has been generated over a long period of time which can happen when using the

waterfall method. It is usual for some crossover to exist between design and implementation. It is

only possible to construct a prototype of elements of the system if there has been some degree of

implementation.

Construction phase

Within the construction phase, the programmers take the preferred prototypes and begin to

construct a formal solution. This is naturally involves implementation and will focus on aspects

of the software that were not part of the prototypes shared with the clients such as those that have

been time boxed. The advantage if having already designed prototypes is that some of the

implementation may have been complete already. As with all aspects of RAD, the client can be

involved if necessary. This would be likely during testing.

Cutover phase

One the construction and in house testing has been completed, the project moves into the cutover

phase. Within this phase the client and the client’s staff will be using the software as normal. The

development team will remain available for a predefined timescale to carry out corrective

maintenance, incorporating feedback from the client in relation to the client’s evaluation of hoe

the software operates in real context. This phase is regarded as streamlined and concise

equivalent of traditional evaluation and maintenance.

Justification of RAD

Faster delivery time

This is achieved by rapid prototyping and by using automated tools like Computer Aided

Software Engineering of CASE tools that enable the developers to re-use previously generated

codes thus saving time needed for manual coding.

Better quality

Although RAD may imply some compromise in terms of scalability and the range of features in

the product been delivered. It enhances the product quality by providing a considerable reduction

in the errors due to the use of automation tools and prototyping. Errors and omissions are

detected in the early stages of development therefore preventing ay extra effort and cost.

Reduced risk

Due to the iterative approach and prototyping, testing and integration of end user feedback

happens at each stage of development. Hence, the end products have less number of defects and

changes, thereby minimizing the risks involved in the project. There is little or no testing effort

involved.

3.3 fact finding approach

This section concentrates on the research design, target population sample size and sampling

techniques research methods and some of the methods of data collection that the researcher has

designed to use on the proposed system.

Research design

The research design use for the online auction system for art was experimental. It allows the

researcher to control the situation. In so doing, it allows researchers to answer the question” what

causes something to occur?”. It provides the highest level of evidence for single studies. It

enables the researcher to maintain control over all factors that may affect the result of an

experiment. In doing this, the researcher attempts to determine or predict what may occur.

Population

The target population was Lolwe auctioneers, Nairobi city branch.

Sample size and sampling

Data collection tools

Interviews

This is a conversation between two or more people where questions are asked by the interviewer

to obtain information from the interviewees. For effective data, interviews were conducted where

several questions were formulated for the managers of the Lolwe auctioneers to gain more

information about their auction of artworks.

Advantages

Accurate screening

Face-to-face interviews help with more accurate screening. The individual being interviewed is

unable to provide false information during screening questions .it is possible to get around

screening questions in online and mobile surveys.

Capture verbal ad non-verbal questions

A face to face interview is no doubt going to capture verbal and non-verbal questions, but this

method also affords the capture of non-verbal questions including body language, which can

indicate a level of discomfort with questions. Adversely it can also indicate a level of enthusiasm

for the topic being discussed in the interview.

Capture emotions and behavior

Face-to-face interviews can no doubt capture an interviewee’s emotions and behaviours. Online

and mobile surveys cannot capture raw emotions and behavior.

Observations

Observations involved attending one of the live auctions in Lolwe auctioneers and observe what

is done.

Advantages

It provides good insight into how the different participants are behaving and interacting

It may enable one to see things that are taken for granted by participants. Their perceived lack of

importance by participants may mean that they would not be picked up by other methods that

explore participant’s perceptions.

3.4 system requirement analysis

Functional requirements

It deals with what the system should do or provide to users. They include description of required

functions, outline of associated reports or inline queries and details of data to be held in the

system.

A user can register to the system and able to login once registered, browse the available items,

post his/her bid and post a new auction. The administrator, on the other hand, can insert and

modify available data about items, users and categories of items.

Non-Functional requirements

They detail constraints, targets or control mechanisms for the new system. They describe how,

how well or to what standard a function should be provided.

The system should be user friendly, flexible enough to be done some changes if need be, it

should be able to be used by any auction company, it should also be easy to be used by anyone

interested.

Logical design

Use case diagram

Use cases are “a description of set of sequences of actions, including variants, that a system

performs that yield an observable result of value to an actor”. They are used in order to: design

system from user’s perspective, communicate system behaviour in user’s term and enumerate all

externally visible behaviour.

Here are the use cases for the online auction system for artworks project (there are two actors for

the system: a normal user and an administrator).

USER ADMIN

Manage items

Place a bid for an item

Check for an item he/she is trying to sell

Search for an item

Post an auction

Check item he/she is trying to buy

Login

Register

Manage users

Add new category

Manage categories

System Flow Chart

no

yes

no

yes

Start

Is registered

Login

Registration

Is valid

Is user

Logout

Stop

Is

Manage user

Manage category

Send updates to bidders

Manage items

Place a bid

Check/search item

Report generation

Add new auction

Hardware and software requirements

Hardware requirements (Minimum)

Server side

Processor 2.20 GHz

Ram 2 GB

Harddisk 10 GB Free Space

Client side

Processor 2 GHz

Ram 1 GB

Harddisk 4 GB Free Space

software requirements (Minimum)

Server side

Operating system :- Windows server 2003 or anycompatible server OS

Framework :- Net framework 4.0

. Web Server :- IIS 6.0

Front End:- ASP. NET with C# (.NET)

Back End :- SQL server 2008

Client side

Operating system :- Windows XP or any compatible

OS

Browser :- Internet Explorer 6.0 or any compatible

Timeline Chart

Activities Total days

Requirement

gathering and

analysis

10

(1 to 10)

Design 30

(11 to 40)

Coding 30

(35 to 65)

Testing 25

(50 to 75)

Implementation 10

(75 to 85)

Documentation 90

(1 to 90)

Total 90 days