Design Specifications

Introduction

This application takes all the meter readings and generates bills for its customers. An event occurs when the application takes the meter number and matches it with customer's name in the data base system to generate the bills for customers.

System Architecture

This application has a meter reading collection subsytem. The meter reader's tasks is to collect the meter readings from the area he/she is servicing, stating the date and the meter number. The collected data is then dumped into the main "customer" data base system. A transaction occurs when the system matches the meter number and the customer's name to calculate the charges.

The preconditions of the system are customer addresses and their respective old meter readings and new meter readings.

Object Model Summary

Object model has following classes:

1. Account: provides balance owed by the customer.
2. Billcharges: provides unit used, tax amount, total charges, late charges and the due date.
3. Company: provides the name of the company.
4. Customer: provides cusotmer name, billing address, service address and customer type (for e.g industrial or residential)
5. Meter: provides meter number assigned to each customer's meter.
6. MeterReading: provides information about metervalue read, type of meter (i.e. estimated or actual).
7. Meter Reader: provides the name of meter reader, ID number and their respective servicing area.
8. Payment: provides the information about the type of the payment (by credit card, check or cash).
9. Rates: provides the usage rate and appropriate code for type of customer i.e industrial or residential.