Apple Country Lawn and Landscape

 

By Jonathan O'Shields

Presented:? April 2004

Senior Project Supervisor:? Dr. Joseph Daugherty

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Background

Apple Country Lawn and Landscape has been in business since 1996.? The owner and his wife kept track of his business by storing information by hand, using pencil and paper.? Everything from inventory to personnel information was hand written into ledger books.? Once I saw this form of keeping track of his information, I knew I could make his business methods more efficient and more accurate.? I talked to him about creating a computer application which would computerize his paper work.

 

Project Description

I made plans to go over to his home after church on a Sunday because I wanted to have plenty of time to talk about what information he wanted to have stored.? After talking to him for several hours, I went home and started working on a database using Microsoft Access that would meet his specifications.? This took along time because one thing he wanted to be able to do was to search for plants using attributes such as the soil condition it best grows in to the main color of it.? When doing estimates for jobs it would save him a lot of time by being able to quickly do a query on which plants or trees would be best suited for the environment he would put them in. Besides this he also wanted to be able to maintain personnel records, customer records and invoices, and inventory of plants and landscaping materials on hand.

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Since the owner and his wife knew basically nothing about a computer, I knew I had to make the interface as straight forward and simple as possible.? I met with them to see what they wanted to show on the screen.? I then designed an interface for them using Visual Basic.? Once I completed the database and interface, I then had to teach them how to use the application.

 

Conclusion

This project was an excellent way for me to gain experience while using some of the skills I have learned from my classes at UNCA.? The classes that were the most beneficial for me for this project were Visual Basic, Database, and Project Management.? Working with users that had basically no computer skills made the project a bit more challenging.? I had to ask questions in as simple terms as possible, and I found that a quick sketch on a piece of paper is worth a thousand words.? With the success of this project, it has built up my confidence to be able to work on future projects.??