Digitalization of ITU Erasmus Process

MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM
“DIGITALIZATION OF ITU ERASMUS PROCESS”
Final Report
Group 3
CANSU HÜRSES 070150261
ECE YAVUZ 070140661
METE UMUT ELMAS 070140662
NUR MELİS BALLIKAYA 070140230
ÖZGE KAVAS 070140313
UMUT TÜREMEN 070140321
ZEYNEP ERÇİN 070140663

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Table of Contents
1. Preliminary Study........................................................................................................................3
1.1. Abstract/Management summary .........................................................................................3
1.2. Short description of the company/sector being analyzed......................................................3
1.3. Short description of the project and the back ground............................................................4
1.3.1. Defined Needsfor “Digitalization of ITU Erasmus Process” ............................................5
1.3.2. A brief research on the existing similar systems.............................................................5
1.4. Environmental requirements and implementation requirements..........................................6
2. System Analysis...........................................................................................................................6
2.1. Sub and supra systems of the current system.......................................................................6
2.2. Process analysis ofexisting system.......................................................................................7
2.3. Data analysis of existing system......................................................................................... 10
2.4. Information requirements list............................................................................................ 11
2.5. Decision for the solution....................................................................................................12
3. System Design........................................................................................................................... 13
3.1. Process hierarchy chart......................................................................................................13
3.2. Physical design and system components detail...................................................................14
3.3. Input and storage – File and database design......................................................................16
3.3.1. Data Tables and Data Dictionary ................................................................................. 17
3.3.2. Data Structure (Entity Relationship Diagram) .............................................................. 21
3.4. Program design – Application design.................................................................................. 22
3.4.1. Detailed process flowchart ......................................................................................... 22
3.4.2. Data Flow Diagram .....................................................................................................28
3.4.3. Use Case Diagram.......................................................................................................29
3.5. Output design.................................................................................................................... 29
3.6. Test design........................................................................................................................ 35
3.5.1. Test case diagram for “Digitalization of ITU Erasmus Process” ......................................... 36
3.5.2. Unit test design of “Digitalization of ITU Erasmus Process” ............................................. 37
3.5.3. Test Design of Whole System as “Digitalization of ITU Erasmus Process” .......................... 38
3.7. Implementation recommendations.................................................................................... 39

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4. Conclusion and Discussion......................................................................................................... 39
4.1. Summary........................................................................................................................... 39
4.1.1. Context diagram......................................................................................................... 40
4.2. Potential impacts of the system on the organization........................................................... 40
4.3. Challenges faced................................................................................................................ 41
4.4. Recommendations for further practices ............................................................................. 41
References.......................................................................................................................................43

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1. Preliminary Study
1.1. Abstract/Management summary
The purpose of this project is making the documentation of ERASMUS processes easy for
Istanbul Technical University students. All the students who went abroad with the ERASMUS
program, know the struggle of collecting necessary documents.
Especially the regular way of getting approval for courses which will be taken in the other
university, getting a signature for legal documents, chasing up for the Erasmus coordinator and
delivering all the documents to the Erasmus office at once is too much time consuming and hard
to manage.
To solve this problem, we decided to design a digital systemthat students, professors, Erasmus
office and the Erasmus coordinator can use together. All the necessary documents can be
loaded into the system by students. Students, professors and Erasmus office will know which
documents they need to upload, check and approve. For example, when there is a need of
approval for a specific course, a student will upload it to the systemand the related professor
can easily decide whether the course is appropriate or not.
Thanks to this system, both the academic side and students save time. Also, currently because
of the security and complexity issues, ITU Erasmus Office does not accept any documents for
Erasmus Application if one of them is missing. This systemalso reduces the complexity of
tracing missing documents and supplying a secure environment.
Currently, ITU students have too many things to do for the application process of Erasmus. All
the documents are delivered manually to related professors and the Erasmus Office. We think it
is time to make a huge difference in our university for the sake of the next generations. You will
read the short description of the current systems in section b and a more detailed description of
our project in section c. Finally, we will discuss, the environmental requirements for our system.
1.2. Short description of the company/sector being analyzed
Istanbul Technical University has been an institution providing education in the fields of
engineering and architecture since its establishment in 1773. Currently, more than 40,000
students are studying at the university. Information Processing Department of ITU (BIDB) has
been providing services in the field of management information systems since 1998 and its main
functions include the development of software required in the university and planning of the
network infrastructure in the campuses. Among the software systems developed by the
Information Processing Department so far, there are systems facilitating the exchange of

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communication between students and administrative and academic staff such as Ninova, ITU
Student Information System, ITU Portal, ITU Mobil, ITU Academy.
ITU started the Erasmus Program in the 2003-2004 Academic Year by sending 14 students to the
Technical University of Munich. Agreements with universities in Europe and the number of
students benefiting from the program increase every year. In the 2019-2020 Academic Year, 658
students were eligible to participate in the Erasmus program. ITU European Union Center
Erasmus Office is an institution that provides agreements with universities abroad, provides
communication with the European Commission and helps students about the process who
benefit from the program.
Apart from Erasmus Office, many units of the university are included in the Erasmus process.
The Rectorate provides facility and giving permits for the general process. Deanship, Faculty
Exchange Program Commission, student affairs, departmental coordinators and faculty
members in each faculty contribute to the process by providing information to students,
approving the documents and forwarding them to Erasmus Office.
As a result, digitalization of ITU Erasmus Process will be conducted with contributions of many
units such as rectorate, ITU Erasmus Office, deanships, student affairs, Faculty Exchange
Program Commissions as well as the Information Processing Department who will develop the
software.
1.3. Short description of the project and the back ground
Digitalization of ITU Erasmus Process is an optimization for the Erasmus students who are
originally ITU students and going abroad to study. Today, when an ITU student wants to study
abroad via Erasmus+ Exchange Program, there is no enough and clear information about which
documents to be handled. The explanations and guidelines on ITU Erasmus website cannot be
understandable easily. Almost every Erasmus students or candidates have to visit Erasmus
Office at least 5-6 times in order to ask which documents should be prepared and what should
be done in general. On ITU Erasmus website, there are few certain and clear files as Learning
Agreement (LA) to be filled and the information about the countries in terms of grant amounts.
However, the rest of the process is dealt with face-to-face or via email with the responsible
personnel in Erasmus Office or Dean Management. Therefore, this process is administered not
only highly inefficient and ineffective, but also too much time consuming.
In conclusion, the current problem is: “The process complexity of the Erasmus+ Exchange
Mobility Program among the participants and active individuals in the process”
Major difficulties are:
 Sending Erasmus documents to the responsible departments within ITU
 Making LA change to be approved by the responsible departments

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 Selecting and comparing courses for preparing the LA and making them to be approved
by the responsible departments
 Meeting with coordinator / appointment system via face-to-face or online
1.3.1. Defined Needs for “Digitalization of ITU Erasmus Process”
 Uploading the necessary documents to the system online
 Easing the course approval process
 Counter-curriculum course compatibility
 Use of data from the same institutions' previous Erasmus students
 Simplifying LA change operations.
1.3.2. A brief research on the existing similar systems to “Digitalization of ITU Erasmus
Process”
In Turkey, most of the universities has the similar Erasmus system with the current Erasmus
system of ITU, in terms of handling the documentation flow manually. For example, Bahçeşehir
University, Bilkent University, Kadir Has University, Bilgi University, Ege University, Marmara
University, Mimar Sinan University and METU.
On the other hand, there are some universities which have partly online Erasmus system. For
instance, in Ankara University, there is a systemthat students can upload necessary documents
as LA and LA Change documents during the application process. When there is a need to
communicate between the students and coordinator, they are doing via email and face to face.
Another example is the Erasmus system of Boğaziçi University. In Boğaziçi University, there is a
comprehensive system. Students are not just uploading documents to the system; also, they are
preparing documents such as LA via online and uploading those documents to this system
reciprocally.
Since Erasmus processes of the universities can be accessible only by the members of that
university, there is no available information about the cost of the systems. All the information
that were gathered by the team members about other universities’ Erasmus processes were
retrieved from the students of the universities. Therefore, based on our knowledge that we
have learnt during the Management Information Systems course, we may only assume that the
Erasmus systems of every single university are on-the shelf software packages, which is also
called proprietary software packages. We may even assume that they are also contract type of
proprietary software packages; since, the other option which is in-house developed type of
proprietary software packages would be way much more expensive.

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1.4. Environmental requirements and implementation requirements
As project aims to minimize the paperwork and simplify the process, papers should be signed
without printing or wasting time with signing process. That is why the systemrequires an e-
signature process, so that all the LA, LA change, grant agreement will be signed on the platform
by the responsible coordinator or the student.
In order to use this e-signature, there is a need for permission from University Rector.
All the papers should be uploaded by the student except grant agreement as the agreement is
prepared by the Erasmus+ Office. Grant agreement should be uploaded by the Erasmus+ Office.
Confirmation of Stay should be signed by the other university when student arrives, and hand-
signed paper should be uploaded by the student.
E-signed LA will be printed for to complete the signing process then will be signed by the arrived
university. After signing process student can upload the paper with Confirmation of Stay.
2. System Analysis
2.1. Sub and supra systems of the current system
In this step, the main modules of the current system in terms of components and environment
is identified as shown below.

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2.2. Process analysis of existing system
According to the feedback of our lecturer, we also examined the current system of ITU Erasmus
process. Thus, the basic process flowchart of the current ITU Erasmus systemis drawn by our
project team.

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Additionally, we have examined the Erasmus process of Boğaziçi University; since, the current
Erasmus system of ITU has approximately no digitalization in itself. Then, the basic process
flowchart and the detailed process flowchart are drawn by our project team.

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2.3. Data analysis of existing system
The data structure of the existing systemwhich is the Erasmus process of Boğaziçi University is
drawn as ER Diagram.

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2.4. Information requirements list
Since there is no existing systemin ITU, we need to develop it first. To do that, we need to work
with ITU Information Technology Department. We can use Boğaziçi University’s existing system
as a model to develop such a system. The new system requires a database to keep the
information of students. Therefore, system needs to be integrated with SIS. Students need to
login into the system with their ITU username and password.
Since the system will be started in Management Faculty, initial need for the systemis actually
the approval of the authorities of the faculty. Since the systemincludes and eliminates so many
official steps in the departments and faculty, they need to approve all the processes. Another
need for the new systemis the process of e-signature. Since all the documentation process will
be online, students will sign the documents by simply writing their names. Their name will be
considered as e-signature. For the academic part, they can use their official e-signature.
As it is mentioned above, there is no existing systemin ITU. To discuss the defects of the existing
system, we will firstly mention about the defects of the usual way of Erasmus in ITU. Secondly,
we will use the Boğaziçi University Erasmus systemas an example to show what are the defects
and how can we improve it.
Currently, ITU students are applying to Erasmus online as every Erasmus student does in the
other universities. After the selection process, students start to documentation process for the
specific university they are going to. Firstly, they need to look up for the necessary documents
from ITU Erasmus web page. In the website, almost everything was explained in a way but it is
very complicated for someone who is applying for the first time. Students need to figure out on
their own which documents are necessary for their application and which documents need to
be delivered in a specific time period.
Getting an approval for some documents and the courses in the receiving organization is a not
so convenient. Students need to get an appointment from the department coordinator which is
a really hard process. The coordinator controls the courses and asking the related professors
whether the student can take it or not. Therefore, the process takes too much time for both
students and the coordinator. After all the courses are approved the documents must be
approved by the authorities. In management faculty, the meetings are only hold in Wednesdays
so students need to wait to get the final approval in the department. After this process,
students need to deliver all of the necessary documents to the Erasmus Office with hard copies.
Students usually miss the classes because of this process, since Erasmus Office does not accept
any document except their working hours. Same process happens if LA Change document is
necessary. It is even harder to communicate with coordinator because students are in abroad
and the only possible contact way is e-mail.

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In the existing systemof Boğaziçi University, students are uploading the courses into the specific
system and get the approval easily. The defect of the system begins with the hard copy of LA
document. After the department and faculty approvals are done, students must deliver the LA
to their Erasmus Office with other necessary documents. Hence, Boğaziçi University actually
solved a big problem by making LA process very easy but it is still very hard for students to get
the true information about the necessary documents.
Last defect is about safety of the documents. Currently, Erasmus office holds all the document
in a shelf in the office, which everyone has access. Anyone can basically take somebody else’s
document by simply going there. Documents can also get lost because of this storage system.
2.5. Decision for the solution
The usual way of being an Erasmus student requires so much steps. These steps need to be
faster, easier and safer. Our purpose is fulfilling these needs in a more convenient way for
students, academics and Erasmus office.
ITU has 3 different options to solve the current problem. These are:
 Purchasing a new system from outside of the university.
 Information Processing Department of ITU (BIDB) can develop such a system from the
beginning.
 Modifying current system of Boğaziçi University and integrate it into the ITU system.
To decide which solution is the best, we need to consider the pros and cons for every one of
them.
If ITU selects “purchasing a new system” option in order to create this system, it will be very
expensive. Financially, it would be impossible to do that. Also, some confidential data of the
students can be seen by the external authorities. On the other hand, the system can be more
professional. It also brings maintenance cost of the system.
If ITU wants to develop an entire system itself, this will also cost time and resources of
Information Technology department. They may even need to hire new system engineers to
create this system. However, it would be so much cheaper than buying a whole systemfrom an
outside source. System needs to be work with SIS system too, so some necessary changes must
be made in anyway in the existing system. The data will not be shared with any outside
resources, so it is safer to do it.
Modifying current system of Boğaziçi University and integrating it into the ITU is a hard process.
It requires an official permission of Boğaziçi University and approval of ITU. It is the cheapest
action because of the fact that the system of Boğaziçi University already solved the LA
documentation process which is a real burden for ITU. ITU only need to modify the student

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information and add necessary steps according to our flowchart above. In anyway, designing a
new system would be safer by considering own policy of the university.
In this content, ITU should go with the second option, which means developing a new system
with its own resources in a safe and cheaper way.
3. System Design
3.1. Process hierarchy chart
The process hierarchy chart of the systemdesign of “Digitalization of ITU Erasmus System” is
created as shown below.

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Process hierarchy flowchart
3.2. Physical design and system components detail
Whole Erasmus process takes longer time than it should take, as most of the steps should be re-
done when there is a mistake. Moreover, it also takes time to identify the problem in the
process. There are plenty of signature to be taken, papers to be prepared, and people for to get
permission from. Students should go back and forth between campuses, lecturers and
coordinator, so that they can complete all the signatures and collect all approvals. As ITU
students mostly have quite busy weekly schedule, this process should have been continuing on
a digital platform.
As the system aims to digitalize the paperwork; permissions and signatures should be taken on
the system. That is why there was a need for e-signature system. Lecturers of the management

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faculty who give approval for courses on LA, coordinators who sign the LA and other papers
have their own authority to approve the requests that are sent from students. As LA is paper
that is only used within the ITU, there is no need for actual signatures by authorities.
Students are able to login the system via their ITU Giriş system, which has all the student data
such as student number, mail address, etc. All the faculty lecturers and Erasmus coordinators
will be defined in the system, as well as all the faculty courses. Student should upload the
syllabus of course of receiving institution, then they can choose the related course in ITU so that
system can send notification to the lecturer. Lecturer should compare two syllabuses and decide
if they are suitable or not. If lecturer approves that courses fit each other, it automatically
places on the digital LA. After all courses are selected; LA is sent to the faculty coordinator, then
to the faculty dean for approval. As the last, LA is approved by Erasmus Office. All process is
done via e-signature.
After LA is approved, students should upload their additional documents to the system. All
documents are reviewed by the Erasmus Office, therefor Grant Agreement can be prepared. At
the last, student should get printed LA signed by the receiving university as well as confirmation
of stay. Those documents should be applied to the systemby the student, too.
Overall, all approvals and signatures will be done on the system by authorities. As those papers
are internal correspondence, it is legal to use e-signature within the university.

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Basic process flowchart of the new system
3.3. Input and storage – File and database design
In the new database design that we will use in our system, there are several entities. These are
student, Erasmus, lecturer, coordinator, course, approved course, LA document, Faculty
Exchange Program Commission, deanship and necessary documents.
The new database design which collects, uses and stores data includes data tables, data
dictionary, data structure (entity relationship diagram), and data flow diagram.

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3.3.1. Data Tables and Data Dictionary
Database design of the systemshows logical database structure which includes data tables.
Each data table consists one of the entities and its attributes. Descriptions of the attributes form
the data dictionary. Primary and foreign keys can be seen for every entity. Also, we have
corrected some descriptions according to the feedback of our lecturer during the presentation.
 Student Table
The entity contains students’ information which is required for Erasmus process and
logging into the system.
Attribute Optional Data Type Length Description
Student_ID Y CHAR 9 The primary key in order to specify students.
Student_Name Y TEXT 30 First and second name of student.
Student_ITU_E-
mail
Y TEXT 25 The ITU mail of the student.
Student_Password Y TEXT 16 The password that the student use for the Erasmus System.
Date_of_Birth Y DATE 10 Birth of date of student.
Gender Y TEXT 6 Gender of student as male or female.
Nationality Y TEXT 3 Nationality of student as TR, DE, FR.
Phone Y NUMBER 12 Phone number of students with country code.
Student_E-mail Y TEXT 30 E-mail address of student.
Study_Level Y TEXT 15 Study level of student as graduate, under-graduate.
Class Y NUMBER 1 Class of student as 1, 2, 3, 4.
Faculty Y TEXT 20 Faculty of student.
Department Y TEXT 30 Department of student.
Coordinator_ID Y CHAR 10 The foreign key in order to specify coordinators.
 Erasmus Table
The entity contains information about receiving university, Erasmus date and duration
for every student.
Erasmus_ID_Code Y CHAR 20
The primary key in order to specify Erasmus
country-city.
Receiving_Institution's_Country Y TEXT 15 The country where the receiving institution.
Receiving_Institution's_Name Y TEXT 50 Name of the receiving institution.
Student_ID Y CHAR 9 The foreign key in order to specify students.
Academic_Year Y YEAR 9 Academic year to go abroad.
Semester Y TEXT 9
Duration of Erasmus as full year, one
semester.

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Subject_Area_Code Y NUMBER 3 The code of the department to be studied.
Start_Date Y DATE 10 Going date to Erasmus.
End_Date Y DATE 10 Coming date from Erasmus.
 Lecturer Table
The entity contains information of lecturers who teach in the home university.
Attribute Optional
Data
Type
Length Description
Lecturer_ID Y CHAR 10 The primary key in order to specify lecturers.
Lecturer_Name Y TEXT 30 First and second name of lecturer.
Profession Y TEXT 20 Profession of lecturer as finance, marketing, economy.
Lecturer_E-mail Y TEXT 30 E-mail address of lecturer.
 Coordinator Table
The entity contains information of coordinators who are responsible for Erasmus
process.
Attribute Optional Data Type Lenght Description
Coordinator_ID Y CHAR 10 The primary key in order to specify coordinators.
Coordinator_Name Y TEXT 30 First and second name of coordinator.
Coordinator_E-mail Y TEXT 30 E-mail address of coordinator.
 Course Table
The entity contains information of ITU Management Faculty courses.
Course_CRN Y CHAR 8 The primary key in order to specify courses.
Course_Name Y TEXT 80 Name of the course.
Lecturer_Name Y TEXT 30 The lecturer who teaches the course.
Local_Credits Y NUMBER 2 Local credits of the course.
ECTS_Credits Y NUMBER 2 ECTS credits of the course.
Department N TEXT 30 The department which the course is studied.
Course_Type Y TEXT 20 Type of course as compulsory, elective.
Prerequisites Y TEXT 50 Classesorcoursesthat needtobe completed in advance.
Description Y TEXT 200 Content subjects of the course.

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 Approved Course Table
The entity contains information of approved courses by lecturers.
 LA Document Table
The entity contains information of LA documents of the students.
LA_Document_ID Y VARCHAR 10 The primary key in order to specify LA documents.
Student_ID Y CHAR 9 The foreign key in order to specify students.
Student_Name Y TEXT 30 First and second name of student.
Date_of_Birth Y DATE 10 Birth of date of student.
Gender Y TEXT 6 Gender of student as male or female.
Nationality Y TEXT 3 Nationality of student as TR, DE, FR.
Phone Y NUMBER 12 Phone number of students with country code.
Student_E-mail Y TEXT 30 E-mail address of student.
Study_Level Y TEXT 15 Study level of student as graduate, under-graduate.
Class Y NUMBER 1 Class of student as 1, 2, 3, 4.
Faculty Y TEXT 20 Faculty of student.
Department Y TEXT 30 Department of student.
Erasmus_ID_Code Y CHAR 20
The foreign key in order to specify Erasmus country-
city.
Receiving_Institution's_Country Y TEXT 15 The country where the receiving institution.
Receiving_Institution's_Name Y TEXT 50 Name of the receiving institution.
Academic_Year Y YEAR 9 Academic year to go abroad.
Semester Y TEXT 9 Duration of Erasmus as full year, one semester.
Subject_Area_Code Y NUMBER 3 The code of the department to be studied.
Start_Date Y DATE 10 Going date to Erasmus.
End_Date Y DATE 10 Coming date from Erasmus.
Coordinator_Name Y TEXT 30 First and second name of coordinator.
Course_CRN Y CHAR 8 The foreign key in order to specify courses.
Course_Name Y TEXT 30 Name of the course.
ECTS_Credits Y NUMBER 2 ECTS credits of the course.
Course_ID_Receiving Y VARCHAR 10
The primary key in order to specify courses at receiving
institution.
Course_Name_Receiving Y TEXT 30 Name of the course at receiving institution.
Course_Language_Receiving N TEXT 3 Teaching language of the course at receiving institution.
Matching_Percentage N NUMBER 3
Matching percentage between the course at home
university and receiving institution.
Course_CRN Y CHAR 8 The foreign key in order to specify courses.

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Course_ID_Receiving Y VARCHAR 10
The foreign key in order to specify courses at
receiving institution.
Course_Name_Receiving Y TEXT 30 Name of the course at receiving institution.
Course_Language_Receiving Y TEXT 3
Teaching language of the course at receiving
institution.
 Faculty Exchange Program Commission Table
The entity contains information about the lecturers in Faculty Exchange Program
Commission who have signing authorize on the LA document.
Commission_Lecturer_ID Y VARCHAR 10
The primary key in order to specify lecturers in the
commission.
Commission_Lecturer_Name Y TEXT 30
First and second name of lecturer in the
commission.
 Deanship Table
The entity contains information about the dean who has signing authorize on the LA
document.
Dean_ID Y VARCHAR 10 The primary key in order to specify deans.
Dean_Name Y TEXT 30 First and second name of dean.
 Necessary Documents Table
The entity contains information about the necessary documents of the Erasmus before
going process for each student.
Student_ID Y CHAR 9 The primary key in order to specify students.
Confirmation_Letter Y TEXT 0 Additionally uploaded document.
Student_Information_Document Y TEXT 0 Additionally uploaded document.
Approval_of_Faculty Y TEXT 0 Additionally uploaded document.
Travel_Insurance Y TEXT 0 Additionally uploaded document.
Language_Exam_Result Y TEXT 0 Additionally uploaded document.
Bank_Account_Information Y TEXT 0 Additionally uploaded document.
***For the attributes (except Student_ID) only output is 'Yes, uploaded.' and/or 'No, not uploaded.'. So, there is no length
information for them.

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3.3.2. Data Structure (Entity Relationship Diagram)
Data structure shows entities, attributes, and relationships between entities.

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3.4. Program design – Application design
3.4.1. Detailed process flowchart

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In addition, according to the feedback of our lecturer after the presentation, we have added
the business process flowchart with the swim lane to our project.

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3.4.2. Data Flow Diagram
Data flow diagram shows the movement of data between entity, process, and data stores. Data
flows (arrows) represent the direction of data as input or output.

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3.4.3. Use Case Diagram
We have converted “authorities” actor into “deanship” and “faculty exchange program
commission” actors in accordance with the feedback of our lecturer during the presentation.
3.5. Output design
In this part; the list of screens, possible queries, reports and possible outputs of the system,
which can be taken from the system based on the database and process flowcharts, are
visualized.

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3.6. Test design
For the proposed systemwhich is the digitalization of ITU Erasmus Process, we have designed
tests as unit, integration, performance, redundancy and user acceptance tests. In case of fail of
any tests, software fix/revise and regression test will be applied in order to get rid of the fail.
Unit test consists of application of the system, information entering systems and database
modules. For this case, every module should be tested individually.
Integration test includes ITU SIS and Erasmus Application System. For this case, all of the parts
should be tested individually. After integrating these systems, a whole systemshould be tested
as a whole, preferably by E2E (End-to-End) test.
Performance test is about the endurance test, which test the stability of the system, and stress
sub-tests. For this case, the systemshould be observed for a period of time. The stress sub-tests
are about the amount of applications to the system, which come to the server as requests. In
order to calculate the maximum durability of the system, these requests will be sent to servers
as many as possible.
Redundancy test contains database partitioning.
User acceptance test measures whether the usability fits with the requirements or not and
criticizes it. It will be done with the student of ITU Management Faculty who wants to study
abroad via Erasmus program and the responsible personnel in order to check if the system
meets with the requirements.

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3.5.1. Test case diagram for “Digitalization of ITU Erasmus Process”
Process No Process Inputs Expected Results Actual Results Test Status
1
System allowance for
uploading necessary
documents
Student information
and documents to be
uploaded such as
"Confirmation of Stay"
Successful uploading
process
Passed / Failed ?
2
matching of the necessary
documents
Student information
and uploaded
documents to be
matched
Successful matching
process
Passed / Failed ?
3
Notification sendings to the
users of the system
User information
Successful notification
sendings based on the
outputs of processes
Passed / Failed ?
4
entering necessary
information manually
Student information
and the information
requirements of the LA
document
Successful entering
necessary information
process
Passed / Failed ?
5
System check for the approval
procedure
Student information,
uploaded documents,
formed LA document
and the confirmation
of authorities
Successful system
check for the approval
procedure
Passed / Failed ?
6 Outputting the LA document
System check approval
Successful LA document
forming
Passed / Failed ?
7
System proceeding in case of
LA Change
Student information
and the information
requirements of the LA
Change document
Successful LA Change
document forming for
the final approval
Passed / Failed ?
8
System allowance for the
approvals of other documents
Student information,
uploaded documents,
formed LA document,
the confirmation of
authorities and system
check approval
Successful approval
procedure of other
documents
Passed / Failed ?
TEST CASE DIAGRAM

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3.5.2. Unit test design of “Digitalization of ITU Erasmus Process”

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3.5.3. Test Design of Whole System as “Digitalization of ITU Erasmus Process”

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3.7. Implementation recommendations
As an implementation recommendation, a brief to Information Processing Department of ITU
(BIDB) can be given about how to realize the systemdesign into the real life. Also, the support
of Erasmus Office and the Management Faculty is important for the processing design to be
realized.
This project can be managed with the necessary software applications by BIDB and by this way,
waste of time and energy are reduced. Before starting to the application of the project,
necessary permissions from ITU Rectorate should be taken and indispensable investment should
be provided.
4. Conclusion and Discussion
4.1. Summary
ITU Erasmus Process was observed based on real-life experiences, thus and so; it was analyzed
that some issues related to the process between outgoing ITU students and academics are
problematic (scheduling appointments with lecturer, workload on LA change times, many
handing over processes for each student for assigned documents and so on). In order to make
this Erasmus process for both students and authorities smoother, digitalization of that process
was proposed particularly for needed documentation flow which is managed manually in the
existing system.
In conclusion, a digital systemwas designed to be ready to deliver to the coder with its flows,
data structure, inputs, and outputs for Management Faculty students primarily.

40
4.1.1. Context diagram
4.2. Potential impacts of the system on the organization
There is going to be a huge organizational change since the whole process will be absorbing a
transformation from manual to digital one. The designed system should be user-friendly,
otherwise; students and academics might have problems of using the new systemwhich was
supposed to be time-saving and easy for both sides. The system will enable ITU to re-earn its

41
reputation of being one of the rapidest digital transformer universities which it has lost for a
while.
Moreover, the systemwill most probably pave the way to other steps of educational digital
transformation such as expanding the systemfor incoming students and Erasmus interns. At the
end of the day, there will be mentally relaxed students who trust their university’s expertise and
who got rid of horrible paperwork, a university which have proved its agile structure and has
broken away the high cost of million pages of paper.
4.3. Challenges faced
Throughout the design process of the new system, we have confronted with problems leading
to a dilemma particularly in determining the borders the systemhas. Since we did not have our
own systemwhich we can make comparisons based on it, needed information related to similar
systems out of ITU has gathered through limited telephone interviews.
Also, we had to consider the legal boundaries and signature needs; therefore, we protect the
original document structure.
4.4. Recommendations for further practices
The new system was designed to be used in management faculty primarily. However, during the
process of our project, we have developed some further recommendations for further practices,
as listed below:
 Initially, we have designed our project for the ITU Management Faculty students, in
order to keep our system manageable. Later, the system can be used for all faculties
rather than just ITU Management Faculty.
 Currently, our project is only for outgoing students. However, the systemcan be
developed also for incoming students.
 For the system that we have designed, LA and LA Change documents are issued.
Furthermore, as a recommendation for further practices, students might be able to
upload additional documents such as receiving institution Learning Agreement.
 Additionally, Erasmus extension/shortening requests can be administrated by the online
automated system.
 As an optional idea, our systemcan be synchronized with “Mezuniyetime Ne Kaldı?”
application in order to make the course approval process easier.
 Moreover, our project is designed for the Erasmus+ Mobility Exchange Process. Then,
the system can be expanded to handle with Erasmus+ Internship Process.

42
 Finally, a mobile application of the system can be designed for easy access.
All these phases mentioned above are possible to manage since systems have a tendency to
expand themselves.

43
References
ITU Bilgi İşlemDaire Başkanlığı Official Website. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://bidb.itu.edu.tr/
ITU Erasmus Office Official Website. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.erasmus.itu.edu.tr/
ITU Global Official Website. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://global.itu.edu.tr/
ITU Official Website. (n.d.). 2019-2020 Erasmus+ Öğrenci Öğrenim Hareketliliği Yerleştirme
Listesi. Retrieved from https://mozaikgiris.itu.edu.tr/docs/librariesprovider209/Outgoing-
Students/belgeler/2019-2020/nihai-2019-2020-erasmus-%C3%B6%C4%9Frenci-
%C3%B6%C4%9Frenim-hareketlili%C4%9Fi-yerle%C5%9Ftirme-
listesi.pdf?status=Temp&sfvrsn=0.7890264795366446
ITU Official Website. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.itu.edu.tr/
ITU Official Website. (n.d.). Sayılarla İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi. Retrieved from
http://sayilarla.itu.edu.tr/
ITU Öğrenci İşleri Daire Başkanlığı Official Website. (n.d.) Retrieved from
http://www.sis.itu.edu.tr/
ITU Strateji Geliştirme Daire Başkanlığı. 2018. Performans Programı. Retrieved from
http://stratejigelistirme.mozaik-test.itu.edu.tr/docs/librariesprovider163/performans-
program%C4%B1/2018-yili-performans.pdf?sfvrsn=4
Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2012). Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital
Firm 12 th edition New Jersey (US): Pearson Prentice Hall.

Digitalization of ITU Erasmus Process

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