Different way you can find information about current/similiar/existing system(s):-

• Questionnaire - give out a questionnaire to any stakeholders who use the current system such as customers, players, staff.  You are trying to find out how the current system is being used, what is at fault with it, what difficulties do they have, what do they like about it, what works successfully and why?  Closed questions may be easier to analyse.  

• Interview - go into more detail with a select few users who are important within the system.  You may use similiar questions but probe them for more in-depth answers.  What parts of the system are successful and how do they link together

• Existing documentation - as look at the documentation within the system.  This can include an actual system you are using or Internet research of a similiar system.  For example if you were looking at a stock system for a Game shop and you don't work in one, you may look at Game online to see how a customer purchases a game, what type of on-screen forms are there, what emails etc does the customer get?

• Observing the current system - this is similiar to above, again if you can't actually observe a current system, do some internet research to look at what data is collect when you buy a game, what screens appear in what order etc

• First paragraph should be an overview explaining what you have found out about the current system 

• Next you need a detailed list that explains each of the problems of the current system.  Include why it is a problem and who is the stakeholder that has identified this

• Next should be the aims of your NEW system.  Bullet point a list of what you are trying to achieve from your new system

• Final paragraph outline any limitations of your project such as something that is manual that would be beyond your project such as look at stock in a warehouse or calculating the most popular sale.  Or not including staff as there are only 3 members of staff so not needed at present.

What are some good features of Visual Basic?

This is not an exhaustive list, but it may help you to choose 4 or 5 which are relevant to your project:

textboxes, labels, command buttons, radio buttons, dropdown boxes, listboxes, multiple forms, user-friendly user interface, validation using if statements, variables, datagrids, arrays, repeating/looping code e.g. For/Next, debugging, auto correction, auto completion of programming statements, error messages, etc

What are some good features of text files?

Again, this is not an exhaustive list. Text files can:

• help you to store data needed for your project (list some examples)

• allow you to organise data into separate text files to replicate entities in the real world.

• be used in a way that avoids data being repeated/redundant

• make use of primary and foreign keys to link/relate tables together

• link to Visual Basic so these files can be processed (e.g. added to, searched, manipulated to produce outputs).

These are the most important part of your project as without these your project will fail.  They will drive you project,  you will create a solution of each one, test in detail and evaluate their success at the end.

Include objectives of the following:-

• Input (data) - What data are you storing and for who?  What will you need to do to the data, i.e. create/amend/delete/save/print?  Creating users accounts

• Processing (manipulating and calculating the data) - Sort the game by genre or certificate?  How many seats are left for a film for a showing?  What will you calculate such as total for a receipt or 10% discount as they are a member?  Who has the best win ratio or what product has sold the most stock?  Put into order the top 10 rental games or top 3 of a tournament?  Add up the total amount of sales in a week or in a month?  Logging users onto an account

• Output (visual representation of the data) - You have stored and calculated data now it need to be outputted which can be on-screen or printed.  This could include reports, invoices, receipts, graphs, orders, sales.   Creating a graph of the teams and number of goals scored currently in a season or how many wins, loses or draws they have had for players.  Printing a receipt for customers with the items they have purchased, the shop details, total amount spent and points left on card.  Creating a report to show the top 10 games sold this month by console for the customers information.  Produce an invoice for customers with the holidays booking of their flight showing the total paid and the total left to pay from a balance.  Print off a membership date with the date valid on or a payslip with employees details at the end of the month

•  Validation (on data input) - (Refer to Unit 1 theory - https://sites.google.com/porthcawlschool.co.uk/alevelcomputer-science/unit-1/topic-6-organisation-of-data/validation-verification)