Computerized Informaiton Support System for the Immigration and Consular Department on Ethiopia
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Date
1995-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Data and infomwtion that may be extracted from them are a key resource for all
organizations - commercially oriented or not-for-profit - for enhanced performance and
greater efficiency in operations (Eardley 1991). The Immigration and Consular Department,
whose entire operation is based on capturing, processing, storing, maintaining and
manipulating data related to travel transactions, is no exception.
On a day-to-day basis, every activity of an immigration and consular service is dependent
on instant processing and rtwnipulation of a large amount of travel data, not only to provide
efficient and timely public service but also to ensure that any request for a Passport or Visa
is adjudicated and processed on the basis of reliable information.
Although the number of persons moving into and out of the countly has substantially
increased over the past few years, the capability of the Department to collect, process, store
and manipulate data related to this has not been improved. Its activities are still largely
based the traditional manual and paper-based system which has severely limited its ability
to provide efficient service and to deal with the increasing number of requests for a travel
document.
The primary theme of the work reported in this thesis is therefore an attempt to an analyze
and design computer-based Immigration and Consular Service that would lead to an efficient
system to facilitate the collection, processing, handling and maintaining of travel data.
To this end, an effort has been made to learn how the current system operates and to
identify the requirements that would form added features of the improved system. To gather
facts on these and the overall situation in the Department, face-tojace discussion and
interview, record inspection and on-site review and observations have been extensively used.Based on the analysis of the facts collected and the requirements identified, different design
alternatives are considered and evaluated, of which one design option is recommended and
further defined, that would help operation of the Department to be more efficient and
effective.
Entities about which the Department maintains information and the data elements upon
which the proposed databases are 10 be bui/lare identified and analyzed using different
conceptual data models which provide a means for the representation and manipulation of
these data in a way that is amenable to computerization.
Furthermore, two prototype dalabases are physically designed and all application program
developed for one of the prime problem areas of the existing system, i. e., the issue of new
Passport, to demonstrate how the proposed system would operate in a real-life situation.
Finally, a proposal for software and hardware acquisition and installation as well as
recommendation for implementing the proposed computer-assisted system is presented.
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Computerized Informaiton Support System